You should start off by examining the criteria for statehood under the Montevideo Convention and the Badinter opinions. Your next section should look specifically at the particular situation in Kosovo—that is, the existence of an oppressed minority within a majority Serbian nation that would otherwise not have the right to secede and form a State but which achieved a de facto independence through the intervention of the international community. Your next section should take into consideration the opposition to Kosovo’s statehood by a good number of countries, including Spain and Russia. You can find the relevant documents on the ICJ’s website in relation to the Kosovo opinion. You should explain that these nations opposed Kosovo’s unilateral secession because they feared that this could create a precedent that would impact on their own minorities back home. Your final section should reflect your own assessment as to whether Kosovo has attained statehood and whether its recognition as such by certain nations and not by others has had any impact on its self-claimed independence. To make this assessment you should rely on the two theories of recognition, although as has already been stated the dominant view is the declaratory one.