Woodward Gives Keynote Address at Virginia Law Day Event
On May 1, 2026, Professor John D. Woodward Jr., Professor of the Practice of International Relations at the Pardee School, gave the keynote presentation at Law Day events hosted by the Virginia Mountain Valley Lawyers’ Alliance. Woodward spoke on the topic, “Operation Flavius: Who Guards the Guards, Who Watches the Watchers.” This title refers to the codename for a secret British counterterrorist operation conducted in March 1988 in which an elite team of British Special Air Services (SAS) forces operating in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar intercepted and killed three Irish Republican Army members who British intelligence suspected of planning a bombing at a British military ceremony on “the Rock.”
In his talk, Woodward explained how Operation Flavius provides great insight into (1) the mechanics of British counterterrorism operations, (2) the kinds of decisions senior British officials, including then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, had to make, (3) the extent of British-Spanish bilateral counterterrorism cooperation, and (4) the legal issues related to this case which lie at the intersection of protecting human rights and countering terrorism. Woodward highlighted his presentation with observations that he gleaned from his summer 2024 visit to Gibraltar where he researched the case.
After the killings, the relatives of the three decedents pursued legal action that eventually went before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). In a controversial 10-9 decision handed down in 1995, the ECHR found that the SAS soldiers were not at fault for the killings as they reasonably believed that the three IRA members were reaching for remotely-activated bomb detonators on their persons as predicted in British intelligence reports. (In fact, the IRA members had no detonators on their persons.)
However, the Court’s majority believed that British authorities breached human rights protections per Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights in failing to arrest the three IRA suspects at the Gibraltar border, failing to consider the accuracy of the intelligence reporting, and using military “shoot to kill” teams instead of law enforcement personnel to engage the suspects.
John Koehler, 2026 President of the VMVLA, said, “We have been fortunate to have Prof. Woodward as our International Law Day Speaker for the past six years. His presentations are always insightful and address topics that are of great importance to both American and International justice.” The 2026 presentation was attended by more than 450 attorneys, a testament to Prof. Woodward’s popularity as a speaker.
The VMVLA is an officially recognized legal association under the Virginia State Bar, working to meet the needs of attorneys whose practices are in rural areas of the state. Prof. Woodward, an attorney, is a long-time member of the VMVLA.
John D. Woodward, Jr. is the Professor of the Practice of International Relations at Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. A former CIA officer, he has served as an operations officer in the Clandestine Service and as a technical intelligence officer in the Directorate of Science and Technology. Woodward, Jr. is a published author and has contributed to prominent news outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe.