This week, Faculty of Law Professor Joanna Harrington is taking part in the second workshop to be held in Canada to bring together professors of international law, military personnel and military law advisers, and representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Canadian Red Cross to discuss topics related to teaching the law of armed conflict (LOAC), also known as international humanitarian law (IHL).
The two-day workshop is being hosted by the Clinic for International and Humanitarian Law at Laval University's Faculty of Law, in cooperation with the Red Cross, and with support from the Canadian Forces. Topics for discussion include the legal and ethical aspects of humanitarian assistance, the application of human rights law during armed conflict, the scope of the law of armed conflict, and the role for experiential learning in these complex but important legal fields.
As a specialist in international human rights law, Professor Harrington will be speaking on the interrelationship between the two disciplines of international human rights law and the law of armed conflict, and the incorporation into the current law school curriculum of the law of armed conflict into courses on international human rights law and international criminal law. "These workshops provide a great opportunity to touch base with colleagues from across Canada to discuss our teaching, both its content and its methods," explains Harrington. "And for lawyers, the interest in the relationships between these two areas of law has grown in recent years, given the increase in non-international armed conflicts (where national law, including human rights law, takes precedence), the rise of transnational terrorism and the "war against terror", and the greater involvement of non-state actors, blurring the distinction between combatants and civilians."
Having participated in similar workshops organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross in conjunction with the US military and US law schools, Harrington was instrumental in organizing the first such workshop in Canada, which was held at the University of Alberta's Faculty of Law in May 2012. Coverage concerning the first workshop can be found at the Edmonton 2012 Workshop website.