Summaries of Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders of the International Court of Justice
circumstances in which a claim to external self-determination may be supported by international law, as well as the conditions that such a claim may have to meet.
With respect to the second issue, regarding the legal nature and status of the Constitutional Framework for the Interim Administration of Kosovo enacted by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations (SRSG), Judge Yusuf is of the view that the legislative powers vested in the SRSG were not for the promulgation of international legal rules and principles, but were meant for the enactment of laws and regulations which are exclusively applicable in Kosovo.
According to him, the Constitutional Framework as well as all other regulations enacted by the SRSG are part of a domestic legal system established on the basis of authority derived from an international legal instrument. The fact that the source of this authority is international does not however qualify such regulations as part of international law. Since the Constitutional Framework is not, in his view, part of international law, the Court should not have taken it into account in assessing the accordance of the declaration of independence of Kosovo with international law.
