State Sovereignty: Balancing Effectiveness and Legality/Legitimacy

Abstract

This chapter aims to examine one of the most interesting topics in the contemporary internationalist debate, namely the crisis of effectiveness as the ultimate or sufficient criterion for achieving statehood and territorial sovereignty. Since the 1970s the perception that international law can no longer accept social reality as it is but promotes and imposes standards of justice and common values has become increasingly widespread. More recently, the ensuing discussion between realists and legalists emerged as one of the central topics addressed within the framework of the advisory procedure concerning Kosovo's declaration of independence. By discussing and critically appraising the normative and practical underpinnings of the crisis of effectiveness, the impact of illegality on State sovereignty, the effects of non-recognition, and the role played by "functional realities" in this field, this essay attempts to explain the continuing centrality of effectiveness and the possibility of reconciling it with the requirements of justice.