Kosovo and NATO: Selected Issues of International Law (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
April 28, 1999 |
| Report Number |
RL30152 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
David M. Ackerman, American Law Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
The initiation of air attacks by NATO and its intervention in Yugoslavia have posed a number of issues involving international law. First, questions have been raised about whether NATO's actions violate the principles of non-intervention and the sovereignty of states over their internal affairs. Kosovo is not an independent state but is a part of Yugoslavia; and the conflict between the Serbs and the KLA and the maltreatment of ethnic Albanians, therefore, had previously been an internal matter rather than an international one. But international law has traditionally afforded states complete sovereignty over their internal affairs and has barred intervention into those affairs by other states. Thus, one issue is whether there are other principles under international law that justify overriding the traditional principles of non-intervention and sovereignty. NATO's military intervention in Yugoslavia has raised several issues of international law. Are there legal justifications for overriding the traditional principle of international law that states are free to order their internal affairs as they see fit without outside interference? Do its actions comport with the Charter of the United Nations? Is its engagement in an out-of-area conflict that is not a response to an armed attack on one of its members permissible under the North Atlantic Charter? This report examines those issues. It will be updated as events warrant.
