Jus Post Bellum as Definition and Practice

Abstract

This chapter traces the materialization of the rule of law in post-conflict Kosovo to argue that jus post bellum involves contestation and enactment. It suggests that just peace requires negotiations over what is ‘just’ in any specific context and advocates a more general argument for a sociologically informed approach to international law. This includes due attention to the effects of indeterminacy. Drawing on field research on UNMIK and EULEX in Kosovo, the chapter takes a practice- and process-oriented approach in tracing how international policy concerns entered international legal and policy documents, institutions, and practices. It concludes that just peace, and legal form more generally, are political and never objective.