United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has given the judges of the International Court of Justice some heavy reading. A total of 2900 pages, to be precise.
He has handed over a compilation of documents in the case that was launched after Serbia won the backing of the UN General Assembly to ask for the court’s opinion of the validity or otherwise of Kosovo’s February 17 2008 unilateral declaration of independence.

Thirty-five states have agreed to join the case, with written statements being submitted by the Czech Republic, France, Cyprus, China, Switzerland, Romania, Albania, Austria,
Egypt, Germany, Slovakia, Russia, Finland, Poland, Luxembourg, Libya, the United Kingdom, the United States, Serbia, Spain, Iran, Estonia, Norway, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Latvia, Japan, Brazil, Ireland, Denmark, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Maldives, Sierra Leone and Bolivia.  

Of these, 13 are backing Serbia’s rejection of Kosovo’s independence: Russia, China, Spain, Cyprus, Romania, Slovakia, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Egypt, Libya, Iran and Azerbaijan.

A report in Kosovo daily Express on April 24 said that the documents handed to the court include resolutions, the Constitutional Framework and other regulations of UNMIK, quarterly reports, Kai Eide’s report, the Ahtisaari Plan, the Troika Report, the Rambouillet Agreement, the Kumanovo Agreement, reports by KFOR and the Declaration of Kosovo’s independence.

Serbian daily Politika reported Serbian president Boris Tadic as saying that international law would prove to be against Kosovo’s declaration of independence. International lawyers and counsel working for various governments were backing up this view, Tadic said.

The court is expected to take at least a year before pronouncing its opinion, which may carry moral weight but is non-binding.
Serbia also, according to the Politika report, had scored a diplomatic success in persuading eight European Union member states that had recognised Kosovo as independent to not submit written declarations to the international court. Kosovo is recognised as independent by 22 out of 27 EU member states.

On April 26, Belgrade-based B92 said that it had got the views from two EU countries’ ambassadors with opposing opinions of Kosovo’s independence, Slovakia’s Igor Furdik and France’s Jean Francois Terral.

France was among the first to recognise Kosovo, while Slovakia refused to do so, considering it a breach of international law.
Furdik said: "We have submitted a statement where we say why we think the decision was not in line with international law. With this statement, we have demonstrated that our decision not to recognise Kosovo was not something done in the heat of the moment, but for reasons that relate to international law,"

Terral said that "what is now important in Kosovo is to protect interests of certain communities, the Serb one above all", and added that the EU’s EULEX mission was "set up for this reason".

Countries that have submitted opinions will have until July 17 to respond to each other’s opinions, but the court had said that the opinions would remain confidential for the time being.

Recognitions of Kosovo’s independence will continue before and after the decision by the World Court on its legality, the International Crisis Group’s Sabine Freizer said, according to a report by Balkan Insight.

"It will be good that the decision by the International Court of Justice shall not (explicitly) outline that the declaration of independence was illegal," Freizer said during an interview with Voice of America, adding that recognitions would continue even after the decision of the World Court.
Kosovo media reported on April 26 that Kuwait and Bahrain would "soon" become the latest countries to recognise Kosovo.