The current contribution of Univ.-Prof. Dr. Erika de Wet explores one specific legal controversy pertaining to military assistance on request, a construct with significant political and legal implications for collective security. It examines whether general international law requires a temporal proximity between the consent issued by the inviting state and military assistance provided. In particular, it explores whether the prior consent has to be ad hoc to the specific intervention, or whether it may also be given ex ante through a so-called pro-invasion treaty clause. In Africa in particular, requests for military assistance since the end of the Cold War have at times been extended to regional or sub-regional organisations on the basis of their treaty frameworks that facilitate ad hoc as well as ex ante military assistance to member states. In as far as ex ante pro-invasion clauses are concerned, two articles within regional security frameworks merit attention. These respectively include Article 4 (h) of the Constitutive Act of the African Union (AU) of 2000 and Article 25 of the Protocol Relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peace-Keeping and Security of 1999 of Economic Community of West African States.
See: Erika de Wet, 'Militärische Unterstützung aufgrund einer Ex-ante-Zustimmung: Verstoß gegen Artikel 2 (4) der UN Charta? (2020) 93 Die Friedens-Warte 413-429.