Swiss Constitutional law professor: ICJ has lost its legitimacy

He said that the opinion of the International Court of Justice on the unilateral proclamation of Kosovo's independence would have "catastrophic effects for international law."

"The court has lost all of its legitimacy because of its poor argumentations. I am almost sure that there was political pressure, because the arguments that were given in the ICJ's opinion were identical to the arguments that the U.S. gave the judges in December," Fleiner said.

He said that the ICJ's decision is contradictory.

"The problem is that the legal meaning of the opinion is very narrow, because the court only decides on the paper that states that the Kosovo government proclaimed independence, and only decides on whether that sentence violates international law or not. The judges believe that this sentence does not violate international law, but at the same time believe that Kosovo does not have the right to a unilateral secession. Everyone can understand that this is a case of contradiction," Fleiner said.

He said that the political effects of the ICJ decision are much greater than the legal ones, because the political leaders of territories that want to secede are getting a message that they have the right to do so.

"For me, the worst thing is that the court did not even discuss the question of whether the rights of the Serb minority were violated in Kosovo. I believe that there rights have been violated greatly, they have not been given the right to address the Serbian constitutional court without any compensation, and secondly, the Serbs in Kosovo do not have the possibility of stating their own political will, for example, to want to secede from Kosovo," Fleiner said.