The Legality of Unilateral Declaration of Independence for New States Creation under the principle of international law

Abstract

State is the most important legal personality in public international law. The statehood concept under the principle of international law has broadly defined as indicated by the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States 1933. These criteria are: 1) a defined territory; 2) a permanent population; 3) a government; 4) a capacity to enter into relations with other states. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, in the post- 1990 era, the former has been transformed by peaceful means with the consent of parent states. By contrast, the latter has dissolved from the violence fragmented into many independent states without the consent of parent states. During this period, the European Union has put many attempts with regard to the new approach in recognizing new states. The connection between democratic government and the human rights protection has been created to new states recognition. The unilateral declaration of independence is the phenomenon of new states creation in international society. This article focuses on the legal consequence of unilateral declaration of independence particularly Kosovo on February 2008. This unilateral action has been approved by the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It reflects many legal consequences both in theoretical and practical approaches because international law neither endorses nor prohibits unilateral declarations of independence. As a consequence, the unilateral declaration of independence intends to change the legal status of the territory whose independence they are declaring.