Workshop on Legal Roles and Responsibilities Concerning Large-Scale Combat Operations

Large-scale combat operations (LSCOs) involve widespread, devastating violence, usually on a vast scale, creating significant, competing demands on increasingly strained state resources. LSCOs impact significantly on civilian populations, armed forces, humanitarian actors, and the environment. Modern LSCOs may take place across all operational domains, including space and cyber. These operations are also increasingly likely to be affected by the involvement of a broad range of actors. International law will apply to these complex operations, and, once the threshold of armed conflict is met — be it an international armed conflict or a non-international one — international humanitarian law/law of armed conflict (IHL/LOAC) will be applicable.

Preparing for the possibility of LSCOs raises complex questions of international law. This workshop will provide a forum in which to share views from military, humanitarian, diplomatic, and academic perspectives on select legal and policy issues concerning LSCOs.