Paper Titles & Abstracts

This paper will look at the EULEX Kosovo Rule of Law mission to provide an overview of its objectives and performance. Firstly, it will examine the mission itself and how EULEX was able to achieve it. Secondly, it will look at the dynamics of the mission and its compatibility with the needs of Kosovo in terms of the rule of law. Thirdly, the paper will look at aspects of legal culture in Kosovo and its relation to international intervention in Kosovo, by analysing the perceptions of both "legal outsiders" and "legal insiders" (professionals working in law-making and rule of law institutions). This will include a review of the views that local citizens hold of EULEX. The research will be based on several types of sources including the legal documents establishing the EULEX mission, Kosovan legal and constitutional documents, EULEX reports, reports by think tanks, academic papers, public opinion polls, focus groups and in depth interviews with "legal insiders" and "legal outsiders".EULEX is the largest CSDP mission yet to be undertaken, and its performance has implications not only for other missions but for the nascent CSDP itself. Yet, EULEX's mission success depends on several factors. Besides the factors on the ground, such as Kosovo's internal politics and Kosovo's relations with neighbouring countries, also important are the dynamics in Brussels and the EU member states. Thus EULEX success is constrained not only by possible design flaws, but also by the compromises that it makes based on both EU level and Kosovo level dynamics.