The European Studies Council presents
Lucio Gussetti, EU Visiting Fellow, and Harold Hongju Koh, Sterling Professor of International Law at Yale Law School, and former Legal Adviser to the US State Department:
“Every Inch of NATO Territory: Transatlantic solidarity for the defence of the European continent and some lessons from the creation of the US federal armed forces.”
President Biden has repeatedly confirmed the US “rock solid” commitment “to defend every inch of NATO territory” based on Article 5 NATO. A similar, albeit not identical, solidarity clause is contained in the EU Treaties in Article 42. Since 1949, the European continent has developed a structure of concentrical solidarity provisions, the intra-EU bond for the 27 EU Member States, and the larger NATO transatlantic bond. The event aims at discussing the scope, interaction, and future practical use of both legal commitments.
The historical constitutional development of the United States provides for remarkable correspondence with, and for several lessons for the European Union as it engages in further developing its military capability within NATO. The event will present some brief considerations in the context of the emergence of the EU Common Defence.