What it is

The LACMO international research network is a consortium of some 20 research centres and research groups within universities and military staff colleges and academies in Europe, North America, Asia and the Pacific, which are engaged in academic  research in the areas of: law of armed conflict, military operational law and the military dimension of cyber security and related disciplines.

It operates under a framework agreement which is designed to promote research cooperation and provide a platform for a variety of forms of cooperation, while preserving each institution’s freedom of choice and autonomy on which projects it wishes to participate in and what kind of cooperation it wishes to engage in with the other members, with each member free to decide whether it wants to participate in any given joint project. Joint activities and projects may involve all members or any group of affiliated institutions depending on the nature of the activity and the interest of a given member institution.

What it does

The types of cooperation envisaged within the framework of the LACMO network include joint organization and execution of research seminars, expert working groups and conferences, book projects and joint publications of different types, joint supervision of doctoral candidates, staff exchange for research purposes and any other research activities which the members decide upon. A launch conference was held in Amsterdam in September 2018 to kick off cooperation and any member is free to invite any other member to participate in any project that it is planning. Several new projects are planned for the coming year.

Who we are

The following institutions are members  of the LACMO Network. The name of the contact person at each respective institution is listed in brackets. The list is current as of 1 December 2018.

Institutions which have joined since August 2017 (in order of their notification of membership)

• Stockton Center, Naval War College  (Mike Schmitt)
• Lieber Center Land Warfare, U.S. Military Academy (Mike Schmitt, Lt. Col. Shane Reeves)
• University of Exeter  (Mike Schmitt, Aurel Sari)
• Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (HLS PILAC)  (Naz Modirzadeh)
• Europa University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder (Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg)
• Law and Armed Conflict Project, Cardozo Law School (Gabor Rona)
• Institute for International Peace and Security Law, University of Cologne (Claus Kress)
• Kalshoven- Gieskes Forum on International Humanitarian Law, Leiden University (Robert Heinsch)
• School of Law, University of Glasgow (Robin Geiss)
• University of Milan, Department of International Legal, Political and Historical Studies (Marco Pedrazzi, Director), Gabriela Venturini (Emeritus)
• University of Trento Faculty of Law (Marco Pertile)
• Swedish National Defence University (Jann Kleffner)
• Justus Liebig University, Faculty of Law, Giessen (Thilo Marauhn)
• Free University Berlin, Faculty of Law (Heike Krieger)
• Institute for International Law, Leuven University (Jan Wouters)
• University of Adelaide, Research Unit on Military Law and Ethics (Dale Stephens)
• University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australian Centre for the Study of Armed Conflict & Society (Robert Mc Laughlin)
• Command & Staff College, Japanese Maritime Self- Defense Force (CDR Koichi Ishi)

Founding Institutions

• Research Group Law of Armed Conflict & Military Operations, Amsterdam Center for International Law (ACIL), University of Amsterdam (Terry Gill)
• Department of War Studies, Faculty Military Sciences, Netherlands Defence Academy (Terry Gill, Frans Osinga)