Opinio Juris

Or so says Professor (and sometime-guest blogger) Eugene Kontorovich in a recent op-ed.

As a result, NATO and America have become parties to the carve-up a sovereign state that they subdued by force. To say that this goes against the core principles of the U.N. Charter is an understatement. For international law, the entire process is a string of humiliations. The Security Council comes out looking like a joke; the right of self-determination looks like it depends on the product of a group's ruthlessness and proximity to Europe; peacekeepers are hostages; and sovereignty is trumped by the threat of terror.

I am very sympathetic to Eugene's critique here. At the very least, Kosovo is as much of, or even more, of a "defeat" for international law as the invasion of Iraq. Few people (Eugene excluded) seem willing to point that out.