The summer months are a busy time for continuing legal education and the discussion of recent trends through workshops and other research-related events. This is no less true in the field of international law, including the laws of war, where engagement by academics often reaches beyond the university community to involve government officials and military legal advisers. It may also involve a transatlantic dialogue, with the Faculty of Law's Professor Joanna Harrington participating as the only Canadian academic in this year's Transatlantic Workshop on International Law and Armed Conflict.
Bringing together academics, senior governmental officials, and military lawyers from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, continental Europe, and Israel, the Transatlantic Workshop on International Law and Armed Conflict is an annual invitation-only event held at the University of Oxford. The event is co-hosted by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, the Oxford Martin Programme on Human Rights for Future Generations, the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas at Austin, and the South Texas College of Law/Houston.
Topics for discussion included the law on targeting, access to humanitarian relief in situations of armed conflict, and the interpretation of international humanitarian law by international and national courts, with Professor Harrington presenting on the topic of what should the role be for international human rights bodies with respect to the shaping and development of the law of armed conflict. Workshop discussions have led to blogposts in the past, with links to discussions from last year's workshop available from Intercross, the blog of the International Committee of the Red Cross.