Amnesty for North Kosovo: Peace at Expense of Justice? Politically, Legally and Morally Justifying the Amnesty Law for North Kosovo
Amnesty for North Kosovo: Peace at Expense of Justice? Politically, Legally and Morally Justifying the Amnesty Law for North Kosovo

Summary/Abstract: The paper examines the question under what conditions amnesty laws can be justified for the sake of peace, and what those conditions may imply in the case of Kosovo’s amnesty law directed at its northern break-away region. It appraises the moral justifications of amnesty laws, their international legal justification, and the political context and logic behind them so to test the hypothesis that peace at the expense of justice can be justified, in this case through Serbia’s and Kosovo’s integration into the European Union (EU). Amnesty laws are found to be balancing acts between political expediency, moral considerations and the international legal order. In North Kosovo’s case, the law risks undermining an already weak rule of law, exacerbating preexisting corruption, while failing to resolve tensions between its questionable political expediency, dubious morality and doubtful international legality.

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