The Battles after the Battle: International Law and the Russia–Georgia Conflict

During the violence and in the aftermath of the August 2008 conflict, the leaders of Georgia and the Russian Federation couched their public statements in the language of international law.1 Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, citing the United Nations (UN) Charter, claimed that Russian actions were unlawful and violated Georgian state sovereignty. Using the rhetoric of humanitarian intervention, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev stated in a speech that Georgia’s actions constituted ‘the crudest violation of international law’.2 Even as the ink dried on Nicholas Sarkozy’s ceasefire text, both sides’ attorneys prepared for a legal battle ahead. By January 2009, Russian and South Ossetian individuals – with official Russian assistance – had filed over 3,300 lawsuits in the European Court of Human Rights, most concerning alleged abuses conducted by Georgian troops against South Ossetian civilians and Russian peacekeepers. Georgia and individual Georgian citizens filed their own suits as well, charging abuses by South Ossetian militias and Russian soldiers against ethnic Georgian civilians living along the disputed border areas, as well as in undisputed Georgian territory. Georgia has also filed suit against Russia in the International Court of Justice, contending that Russia sought to change the ethnic demography of Abkhazia and South Ossetia through ‘directing’ the expulsion of ethnic Georgians from those territories.3