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* Marc Weller is Professor of International Law and International Constitutional Studies in the University of Cambridge and the Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law. He served as a legal adviser for Kosovo in the various status negotiations and served as expert in a number of other international peace negotiations addressing secessionist claims. He is the author of Contested Statehood: Kosovo's Struggle for Independence (2009). Other relevant publications include Escaping the Self-determination Trap (2008) and (with Barbara Metzger, eds.), Settling Self-Determination Disputes: Complex Power-Sharing in Theory and Practice (2008) [
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To some, the practice of international law is akin to an exciting game of chess. Expert players, or litigators, move the pieces on the board, seeking to convert tactical dominance into strategic victory in the case they argue. But in chess, the board is cleared when the game has ended, ready for another encounter that starts again from zero. In international law, one game, or case, builds upon another. While judgments in most courts and tribunals only bind the parties, and only in relation to the specific case at issue, each ruling will contribute to the development of international law. Mostly, this occurs in an incremental way, where judicial practice from various national and international bodies accrues over time. This also applies to the judgments and opinions of the International Court of Justice. Indeed, the Court still enjoys unique authority within the international legal system. Where the Court is expected to address contested areas of international law, or problems that have not yet been fully addressed by international standards and practice, the influence of its pronouncements can be particularly powerful.
The law on self-determination, secession, statehood, and recognition is one such area. Established certainties of the Cold War period have been shaken by the events of the transition that ensued upon its termination. The dissolutions of Czechoslovakia and the USSR, the agreed secession of Eritrea, and the contested one involving Somaliland, followed by the armed action that resulted in Abkhazia's and South Ossetia's de facto separation from Georgia, have added to the sense of uncertainty in relation to this area. There are outstanding issues, involving the so-called frozen secessionist conflicts of Moldova/Trandnistria and Azerbaijan/Nagorno-Karabakh. At...