It wasn't quite what Thomas Jefferson would have written, but on Thursday the U.N.'s International Court of Justice said that Kosovo's 2008 assertion of statehood "did not violate any applicable rule of international law." The ruling brings to a close a case brought by Serbia last year, in which it called the Kosovar declaration of independence a "flagrant violation" of Serbia's territorial integrity.
The U.N. court, while finding that it did have jurisdiction to give an "advisory opinion" in the matter, otherwise took pains to avoid actually endorsing Kosovo's declaration.
That's just as well: Kosovo's sovereignty should not rest on what a U.N. court in The Hague has to say about it. To borrow a few words that are Jefferson's, "whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government." There certainly can be no doubt that Kosovo had suffered "a long train of abuses and usurpations" at the hands of Slobodan Milosevic's brutish government before it was saved by NATO intervention.
Since declaring its independence, Kosovo has adopted a constitution, established a parliamentary democracy, issued passports, set up embassies, chosen a national anthem, and raised an army. NATO troops remain on Kosovo's soil, but the country's fate belongs to its people. Nearly 70 countries now recognize Kosovo as a sovereign state, though China, Russia, Spain and Greece remain notable holdouts.
Still, we'll mark it down as progress that Belgrade chose to take umbrage at Kosovo's sovereignty with a court case rather than through a resort to force. Perhaps a few Serbians might pause to consider that this is Kosovo's gift to them.
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