BRUNSSUM, The Netherlands – From 19 to 20 March the bi-annual International Institutional Law Seminar took place in Maastricht. Organized by the Office of the Legal Advisor and the University of Maastricht 35 participants from academia and NATO exchanged views and discussed “Legal challenges to NATO dispute settlement mechanisms and the impact of external actors”.
the law needs power to become reality and power needs law to become legality
Choosing this topic for the conference followed logically the events in 2019, having dealt with international legal personality of NATO and in 2023, when the focus were on the power, the foundation and the framework of the Alliance and international legal obligations that could bind NATO.
Major General Stefan Fix, Deputy Chief of Staff Support, on behalf of the Commander in his opening remarks therefore stressed: “Nothing needs more attention than the relations between people.” Therefore, it is even more important that “the law needs power to become reality and power needs law to become legality.” He finished by strengthening the audience that “leadership depends on sound legal advice, on your sound legal advice.”
The participants during the two days then focussed among others on developments in international civil service law, practical challenges with international commercial arbitration, interaction between NATO and EU and the use of artificial intelligence in international institutional law.
Beside the exchange of views during the official program, there was enough time for the participants to network and strengthen the NATO legal community bond. Colonel Bianca Jansen, Legal Advisor summarized the seminar:”These seminars create immense synergy due to the opportunity to discuss legal challenges in a broad group consisting of legal experts from both the academic as the different operational fields.”