Joanna Harrington is a Professor and the Eldon Foote Chair in Law at the University of Alberta. She also serves as a part-time member of the Canadian Human Rights Commission. A law professor for over 20 years, her teaching and research activities focus on the interplay between obligations of national and international law, covering such matters as foreign relations law, the law and practice of international organizations, the interplay between international human rights law and national bills of rights, and inter-state efforts to address the commission of serious cross-border crime, including foreign corruption. Her work has been published in leading journals and edited collections, leading to visiting appointments at the University of New South Wales, the University of Oxford, and the University of Texas at Austin, as well as consultancy work with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). She has also served on secondment with the Legal Affairs Bureau of Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (now Global Affairs Canada), providing advice to government on matters of international law and representing Canada in the negotiation of new legal instruments at the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Honours include the Martha Cook Piper Research Prize, a Killam Annual Professorship, a Fulbright Scholar award, and the Canadian Association of Law Teachers Prize for Academic Excellence. She qualified as a lawyer first in British Columbia, and then Ontario, and earned her PhD in law at the University of Cambridge as a Tapp scholar at Gonville and Caius College.

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Recent Publications

New work on interim measures of protection in international human rights cases

Joanna Harrington, "The Legitimacy of Interim Measures from the Perspective of a State: The Example of Canada" in Eva Rieter & Karin Zwaan, eds, Urgency and Human Rights: The Protective Potential and Legitimacy of Interim Measures (The Hague: TMC Asser Press, 2021) at 115-134.

This chapter is part of a new book on the urgent need for widespread respect for interim measures in international human rights cases, calling for improvements from both states and the international human rights monitoring bodies, with state confidence to be fostered through greater transparency and rigour in reasons. The publisher's website link can be found here. A pre-print version of the chapter is available from SSRN.

Written evidence to International Agreements Sub-Committee

On 10 July 2020, the United Kingdom House of Lords European Union Select Committee released its report on Treaty Scrutiny: Working Practices (HL Paper 97), urging for meaningful consultation with devolved governments and other stakeholders before new treaty texts are finalized, including free trade agreements to be negotiated and agreed in the post-Brexit era. The EU Committee’s report, found here, cites the written evidence of Professor Joanna Harrington, found here.

Providing assistance for the victims of foreign corruption

Joanna Harrington, “Providing for Victim Redress within the Legislative Scheme for Tackling Foreign Corruption” (2020) 43:1 Dalhousie Law Journal 245-280. Open access here.

This article examines the prospects for victim redress for the corporate commission of foreign corruption, using Canada as a case study and the SNC-Lavalin affair as the factual backdrop. Borrowing from creative sentencing in environmental law, the article proposes the creation of a fund to which the financial penalties for foreign corruption could be directed to support the provision of international development assistance to affected foreign countries.

A related piece for the CBA's National magazine can be found here. For an earlier piece for Policy Options magazine, see here.

New edition of the Public International Law title for Halsbury’s Laws of Canada

Established in 1907, "Halsbury’s" is the common law world’s best known first point of reference for legal practitioners. The first edition of a Canada-specific Halsbury's was launched in 2006 and completed in 2012. With 100+ subject titles written by academics, practitioners and judges, HLC aims to provide a clear exposition on every aspect of the current law of Canada. The series, and the 2019 edition of the Public International Law title, are available in print and online via LexisNexis Advance Quicklaw.

Extradition, diplomatic assurances and human rights

Joanna Harrington, "Extradition, Assurances and Human Rights: Guidance from the Supreme Court of Canada in India v Badesha" (2019) 88 Supreme Court Law Review (2d) 273-293. Open access here.

​This article evaluates a recent Supreme Court of Canada decision concerning a legal challenge to the use of diplomatic assurances by sending states to alleviate substantial risks of serious mistreatment faced by an individual wanted for trial in another state. It is cited in RJ Currie & J Rikhof, International and Transnational Criminal Law, 3rd ed (Irwin Law, 2020) at 599.

Assessing Canada's legislative scheme for tackling foreign corruption

Joanna Harrington, "Addressing the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials: Developments and Challenges within the Canadian Legal Landscape" (2018) 56 The Canadian Yearbook of International Law 98-143. DOI: 10.1017/cyl.2019.3

This article undertakes a scholarly review of the past 20 years of Canadian effort under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, identifying the need for more work to be done to improve the Act's effectiveness. It also identifies the need to more clearly define the victims of foreign corruption and discusses the need to secure the return of proceeds of crime through improved cooperation across multiple jurisdictions.

List of Publications