Recognition Of States And Governments in International Law After the break-up of the former Soviet Union and the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s the topic of recognition in international law lay dormant for several years until in February 2008 it was revived, perhaps not unexpectedly, with the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo and the controversy about its recognition as a sovereign and independent State by some 51 States (as of 15 October 2008). The topic recently gained further prominence when in August 2008 the Russian Federation recognized the statehood of Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia; a move followed so far only by Nicaragua...