L’État de facto du Kosovo sous tension : Vers la persistance d’une souveraineté imparfaite?

Abstract

Does the independence of Kosovo imply its sovereignty? By considering how the different constitutive elements of sovereignty are declined in the case of Kosovo, this article proposes to conceptualize it as a de facto state, independent in practice but only benefiting from a partial legitimacy which is as much contested from the inside than from the outside. The territorial control as well as the exercise of the political authority of the new entity remains internally contested given the predominance of an interethnic cleavage, of an objective and subjective partition between communities. The internal denial of moral legitimacy is also supplemented by the absence of consensual international recognition, which leads Kosovo to be a juridical non identified political object, an independent de facto state without complete sovereignty.