KOSOVO AND CRIMEA ”CASES”: CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT OF ”RIGHT OF SELF-DETERMINATION” CONTROVERSIES

Abstract

Russian officials alludings about Kosovo ”case” as created precedent of right of self-determination for Crimea`s separation from Ukraine and its annexation to Russian federation has opened many polemics about similarities and differencies between those two international ”cases” of utilization of right of self-determination. The Paper places this international principle into the context of contemporary evolution of intenational community from its previos ”statecentric” to the more complex, ”multicentric” model, which is based on precendents and contextual, wider analogical interpretations of legal norms.The author, further, observes the historical origins of right of people of self-determination – at the beginning as the political principle, and, then, its incorporation into the UN peace system, and, later, its wider interpretation in the whole spectre of significant international Conventions. By considering contemporary international legal theory and its interpretation of two aspect of right of self-determination – ”inner” and ”outer” - as the basis of new international legal standards, this Paper turns its focus on the comparation between legal, historical and political situations of separation of Kosovo and Crimea from its previous states, pointing at the numerous differencies between two most important current ”cases” of ”outer” utilization of right of selfdetermination.