Kushtrim Istrefi
About/Bio
Dr Kushtrim Istrefi is Assistant Professor of Human Rights Law and Public International Law with the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) at Utrecht University. He is coordinator (with Prof. Cedric Ryngaert) of the Research Platform on Peace, Security and Human Rights, member of the Utrecht Centre for Accountability and Liability Law (Ucall), Senior Peace Fellow with Public International Law and Policy Group (PILPG) and substitute member of the Venice Commission.
Recently Published
Lex Mitior “on trial” before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers: Whither Legality
On 17 April 2025, the Kosovo Specialist Chamber of the Constitutional Court (Chamber) issued a worrying judgment regarding the more lenient punishment – the lex mitior principle under Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) and Article 33 of the Kosovo Constitution. The reasoning relies on the legal status…
Mind Your Attitude: The Erosion of International Law?
Recurring breaches and non-enforcement of international law have persisted since the adoption of the UN Charter and the establishment of the post-World War II (WWII) legal order, which remains in place today. Scholars have repeatedly issued death certificates to Article 2.4 of the UN Charter and have raised fundamental questions about the weaknesses of this legal system and…
The law and politics of creation of the micro religious Bektashi state in Albania
On 21 September 2024, the New York Times reported Albania’s plan to create the State of Bektashi. Bektashi is a Muslim Shiite Sufi order founded in the 13th century in Turkey with its headquarters based in Albania since 1930. On 22 September 2024, Mr Edi Rama, the Prime Minister of Albania announced…
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Popular articles by Kushtrim Istrefi
Kosovo is a Country, and a Country Means a State, Rules the Court of Justice of the European Union
January 20, 2023
Kushtrim Istrefi
In September 2020, the General Court of the European Union (GCEU) examined whether the 2019 admission of Kosovo as a ‘third country’ to the EU Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) amounted to recognition by the EU of Kosovo as an independent State. The case was brought by Spain, a non-recogniser of Kosovo,…
Supervision of Derogations in the Wake of COVID-19: a litmus test for the Secretary General of the Council of Europe
April 6, 2020
Kushtrim Istrefi
The pandemic COVID-19 has triggered a record number of derogations from the European Convention on Human Rights (the ‘ECHR’ or the ‘Convention’). By now, Albania, Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Moldova, North Macedonia and Romania have notified the Secretary General of the Council of Europe (the ‘Secretary General’) of their derogations from the ECHR. More States may…
The Luxembourg Court Rules on the Difference between States and Countries as International Law Actors
November 27, 2020
Kushtrim Istrefi
On 23 September 2020, the General Court of the European Union (GCEU) in Case T-370-19 Kingdom of Spain v. European Commission rendered a judgment that will surely become an important footnote in any textbook of public international law dealing with treaties and subjects. In this case, the GCEU ruled, among others, on whether certain acts…