Supervised Independence and Post-Conflict Sovereignty: The Dynamics of Hybridity in Kosovo's New Constitutional Court

Abstract

This Essay uses the conceptual framework of hybridity to analyze the early experience of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Kosovo. While recognizing the difficulties in ensuring an effective form of hybridity and the legitimate integration of international standards into domestic law, this Essay aims to show that the new example of Kosovo’s Constitutional Court — and the engagement of the International Civilian Office as part of the Comprehensive Proposal for the Kosovo Status Settlement (CSP) arrangement — offers useful instruction on how international institutions can serve to consolidate, rather than undermine, democratic legitimacy in post-conflict contexts. Drawing on insights from both local and international actors involved in designing and establishing the Constitutional Court, this Essay re-examines the potential to reach beyond the international-national dichotomy and to understand the foundations of sustainable and legitimate capacity-building in the implementation of hybrid arrangements.

Keywords: hybrid courts, comparative constitutionalism, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzergovina, minority rights, self-determination, supervised independence