OUVRAGE : J. Grzybowski, G. Prelz Oltramonti, A. Verdebout (eds.), Contested States in War and Law

Janis GRZYBOWSKI, Giulia PRELZ OLTRAMONTI, Agatha VERDEBOUT

The precarious status of contested sSates both reflects and begets conflict. From Taiwan to Western Sahara and from Nagorno-Karabakh to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, contested States call into question the standard categories of international law that divide inside and outside, State and non-State, war and rebellion. They inevitably fall in-between them, while alternatively disputing and negotiating their applicability.

Bringing together perspectives from a range of disciplines, the book focuses on some of the most entrenched conflicts around the world. It reveals how different actors, including de facto governments, parent and patron states, local populations, and international courts, navigate the grey zone as they redraw, or work around, the fault lines of war and law.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
Janis Grzybowski, Giulia Prelz Oltramonti, Agatha Verdebout, Contested States in War and Law

PART I
AMBIGUOUS STATUS AND THE (IL)LEGAL USE OF FORCE  

1. Christian Henderson, The Ratione Personae Element of the Jus ad Bellum and Taiwan
2. Ming-chin Monique Chu, The Use of Force Against Taiwan as a Contested State: An Analysis of Legality and Great-Power Politics
3. Megan Price, International Law and the Legitimation of State Violence in the Fourth Eelam War (2006–2009)
4. Júlia Miklasová, Russia-Manufactured ‘Secessions’ in Ukraine: The Attempted Ambiguity of Status, Kosovo, and International Law
5. Sheila Paylan, Legitimization of Violence and State Dissolution in Nagorno-Karabakh: A Critical Legal Analysis

PART II
VULNERABILITY AND AGENCY ON THE GROUND: PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS NAVIGATING WAR AND LAW

6. Irene Fernández-Molina, Contested Statehood, Ambiguities and Volatility: The Effects of Lawfare and Warfare in the Western Sahara Conflict
7. Giulia Prelz Oltramonti, Gaëlle Le Pavic, Hardening Ceasefire Lines in Protracted Secessionist Conflicts: From the Negotiating Table and International Law to Realities on the Ground in the Case of the Abkhaz–Georgian War
8. Bart Klem, Sovereign Experimentation by Separatist Insurgencies: A Performative Perspective

PART III
CONTESTING AND CONSTRUCTING STATES AT INTERNATIONAL COURTS

9. Anne Lagerwall, Contested States Framed by the European Court of Human Rights
10. Janis Grzybowski, Hide and Seek: Bracketing and Projecting the States of Kosovo and Palestine at International Courts

PART IV
CONCLUSIONS

11. Bruno Coppieters, Four Normative Positions on the Contestation of Statehood in War and Law
12. Rebecca Bryant, Speculative Legalities and the Ambiguities of Contested States
13. Martti Koskenniemi, The Melancholy Statehood

 

Index

 

Janis GRZYBOWSKI, Giulia PRELZ OLTRAMONTI, Agatha VERDEBOUT (eds.), Contested States in War and Law, Bristol, Bristol University Press, 2025  (282 pp.)