What are the consequences of the International Court of Justice's recent Advisory Opinion on climate change, especially for the small island developing States who spearheaded this initiative? Associate Professor Ntina Tzouvala talks through the opinion and its consequences with two practitioner academics with deep knowledge of the proceedings: Associate Professor Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh of the Faculty of Law, University of Amsterdam who represented the Government of Vanuatu, and Dylan Asafo, ...
Aug 07, 2025•1 hr 9 min
David Bowie once asked, is there life on Mars? Today we ask, is there life 3,000 metres or more below sea level – and what should international law do to protect it and regulate its exploitation? In this episode we are joined by Professor Joanna Mossop of the Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington to discuss the 2023 Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisd...
Aug 01, 2025•42 min
This week Ntina Tzouvala is joined by Juan Auz to discuss the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency. What is it, how did it come about and what's its significance? (Note: this episode was recorded before the ICJ advisory opinion on climate change was handed down.) Recommendations: Juan Auz, The Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency: A Global South Contribution to Climate Governance, https://www.ejiltalk.org/the-i...
Jul 25, 2025•57 min
This week we have a special episode recorded live at the Symposium Bar and Restaurant at the Australian National University as a side-event at the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law annual conference. Douglas Guilfoyle, Tamsin Phillipa Paige, Imogen Saunders, Juliette McIntyre and Jessie Hohmann discuss methodology in international law scholarship: what is it, is it even possible and why does it freak lawyers out so much to talk about it?
Jul 04, 2025•37 min
Do you want a rock, DJ - or an island? This week the panel discusses the difference between rocks and islands in international law and why it matters, with special reference to the South China Sea case and subsequent legal arguments about archipelagoes. Tamsin Phillipa Paige chairs a discussion featuring co-hosts Douglas Guilfoyle and Imogen Saunders and special guest Tim Stephens. Recommendations: Alex P. Dela Cruz, Making History, Making Archipelagoes, https://www.latrobe.edu.au/__data/assets/...
Jun 26, 2025•59 min
Is the war on drugs literally a war? This week Douglas Guilfoyle discusses the supposed "unable and unwilling" doctrine that is said to justify the use of force against non-state actors in other states' territory with Tamsin Phillipa Paige and Ntina Tzouvala. In particular, we ask could this doctrine be used to justify a US strikes on drug cartels in Mexico or Nicaragua as a response to the opioid crisis? (Spoilers: no.) Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of Au Lait
Jun 19, 2025•40 min
This week Tamsin Phillipa Paige and Douglas Guilfoyle discuss the IDF's interdiction of the Madleen aid vessel bound for Gaza, the law of blockade in naval warfare, and its contested relationship with the crime of starvation. Sidebar: we discuss hypotheticals in cases of state responsibility for interdicting vessels at sea and the possibility of ITLOS hearing cases under UNCLOS - we should have noted in this particular case Israel is not a party to UNCLOS. Recommendations: Douglas Guilfoyle, The...
Jun 10, 2025•44 min
What is it about piracy that causes international lawyers to lose all common sense? This week, in a twist on our “what everyone gets wrong about...” series, Juliette McIntyre talks to Douglas Guilfoyle and Tamsin Phillipa Paige about what drives them mad in piracy scholarship. And what is the crime of piracy, really? How old is it? And where does it come from? Fasten your seatbelts for a bumpy jurisprudential ride. Recommendations: Tamsin Phillipa Paige, “The Whore That Lost Everything”: The Tyr...
May 30, 2025•1 hr 5 min
This week Dr Tamsin Phillipa Paige is joined by Matteo Bassetti and Manon Beury to examine the UK Supreme Court decision in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers. In this case the Supreme Court ruled that a gender recognition certificate does not change a person's legal sex for the purposes of the 2010 Equality Act. The episode explores both the significant implications this has for the human rights of trans people but also asks - why do human rights courts seem to find trans rights so...
May 23, 2025•1 hr 12 min
Given the recent papal conclave, this week Juliette McIntyre discusses with Ntina Tzouvala and Douglas Guilfoyle two of the textbook 'oddities' of international law, the statehood of Vatican City and the sovereign order of the Knights of Malta. Content warning for darker themes towards the end of the episode. Recommendations: Brad Mehldau, Live in Tokyo (album) https://open.spotify.com/album/7sXzZ0Rdqz2VU62t4MtCfs Sinners (movie) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31193180/ Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of A...
May 15, 2025•56 min
Space law! What is it? This week Tamsin Phillipa Paige speaks to Stacey Henderson and Cris van Eijk to find out! Recommendations! On the 'other' bi- and plurilateral space treaties: • Jean-Frederic Morin, 'Space Actors and Governance Explorer' (2024) www.institutions.space. • Pauline Pic, Philippe Evoy and Jean-Frédéric Morin, ‘Outer Space as a Global Commons: An Empirical Study of Space Arrangements’ (2023) 17 International Journal of the Commons 288: https://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1271. On the sh...
May 09, 2025•51 min
In this week's episode, Imogen Saunders talks to trade policy expert and author Dmitry Grozoubinski about President Trump's tariff policy. (If policy is not to strong a word.) K-Pop and Dungeons and Dragons may also rate a mention. Recommendations: Dmitry Grozoubinski, ‘Why Politicians Lie About Trade…’: https://www.amazon.com.au/Why-Politicians-Lie-About-Trade/dp/1914487117 If books could kill: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/if-books-could-kill/id1651876897; https://open.spotify.com/show...
Apr 17, 2025•1 hr 13 min
Book event! This week Ntina Tzouvala discusses queer encounters and queer engagements with international law with editors and authors Claerwen O'Hara and regular co-host Tamsin Phillipa Paige. In this episode, we explore what queer theory can teach us about international law — not just in relation to sexuality and gender, but as a tool for rethinking how law understands power, normativity, and difference. The panel discuss how queer approaches challenge the taken-for-granted assumptions and prov...
Apr 10, 2025•50 min
This week we have another instalment in our "what everyone gets wrong about ..." classic cases series, focussing on the" Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Project" or "Danube Dam" or "the great river heist" case. Tamsin Phillipa Paige explains to Imogen Saunders why this is much more than an environmental law case. Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of Au Lait
Apr 05, 2025•52 min
This week we are discussing the dramatic series of events that resulted in former President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, being transferred to the custody of the International Criminal Court. To discuss the case and its implications, we are joined by Ross Tugade and Dr Priya Pillai. Recommendations: The Filipino online news outlet Rappler: https://www.rappler.com/philippines/thing-to-know-prosecutor-vs-rodrigo-duterte-icc/ ; Patricia Evangelista, "Some People Need Killing", https://www.pe...
Mar 28, 2025•54 min
What do podcasts bring to international law and legal study? This week Dr Tamsin Phillipa Paige discusses podcasts and their role in international law discourse with: Dr Kostia Gorobets, Assistant Professor at the University of Groningen, Başak Etkin, a PhD Scholar at the University of Groningen – both of Borderline Jurisprudence podcast fame – and Professor Douglas Guilfoyle, UNSW Canberra. Recommendations: Kostia recommends - Solvej Balle's On the Calculation of Volume, https://www.ndbooks.com...
Mar 20, 2025•53 min
This week we continue our "what does everyone get wrong about classic case X" series. And today we're looking at the overquoted, under-authoritative, and deeply de-historicized "Caroline Case" (or, more accurately, the "Caroline Affair") with regular co-host Imogen Saunders. Digressions include a plea for accuracy, critical thinking skills and ... Elon Musk? Recommendations: Craig Forcese, "Destroying the Caroline: The Frontier Raid That Reshaped the Right to War" https://irwinlaw.com/product/de...
Mar 13, 2025•43 min
In this week's episode, in light of 48 hours of the news cycle, Juliette McIntyre convenes the Called to the Bar team - Tamsin Phillipa Paige, Ntina Tzouvala, Imogen Saunders and Douglas Guilfoyle - to ask: does international law have a future? And if so, what does it look like without the US as the guarantor of international order? Grab a drink and settle in. It's going to be a bumpy global order transition. Recommendations include: Tamsin Paige, "Petulant and Contrary: Approaches by the Perman...
Mar 05, 2025•1 hr 7 min
What does the practise of international law look like at the day to day level? What is it like to be an international lawyer? This week Tamsin Phillipa Paige speaks to a panel of international lawyers with experience in the private and public sectors: Dr Sarah McCosker (Lexbridge Lawyers); CJ McKenzie (Office of International Law, Australian Attorney General's Department) and Commodore David Letts (Royal Australian Navy and University of Wollongong). All guests are speaking in their personal cap...
Feb 27, 2025•1 hr
What is AUKUS - the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States? What is it meant to do – beyond replace Australia’s aging submarine fleet – and what are the international law issues and implications? This week Douglas Guilfoyle talks all things AUKUS with Rob McLaughlin (University of Wollongong), Monique Cormier (Monash University) and Natalia Jevglevskaja (University of New South Wales). Recommendations Trevor Findlay, That Sinking Feeling: The...
Feb 21, 2025•53 min
In this week's episode Juliette McIntyre, Mike Becker (Trinity College Dublin) and Kyra Wigard (Utrecht University) discusses recent allegations of plagiarism at the International Court of Justice, its implications for public perceptions of the institution, and more widely. What ethical standards bind ICJ judges, or the judges of other international tribunals? Are such questions really new? What is the role of codes of ethics for international courts? Recommendations: Gleider Hernández, The Inte...
Feb 13, 2025•56 min
In this episode Douglas Guilfoyle and Juliette McIntyre discuss President Trump's startling plans to "own" Gaza and resettle all its inhabitants elsewhere, the equally startling number of international laws this breaks, and what the media gets wrong in covering it.
Feb 06, 2025•36 min
In this episode Ntina Tzouvala and Douglas Guilfoyle discuss one of the great misunderstood cases of international law: The Lotus Case. What is 'the Lotus principle'? Does the Lotus case even stand for it? How did the case come about and what was really at stake between Turkey and France? Douglas and Ntina recommend reading: Douglas Guilfoyle, "SS Lotus (France v Turkey) (1927)" in Landmark Cases in Public International Law. https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/landmark-cases-in-public-international-la...
Feb 06, 2025•52 min
The final episode of season 1! This week Douglas Guilfoyle, Tamsin Phillipa Paige, Imogen Saunders, Juliette McIntyre review the year in international law, the year in their own careers and the life of the podcast, and breaking news regarding the International Criminal Court's issuance of arrest warrants in respect of the Situation in the State of Palestine. Strong language straight out of the gate! Recommendations and resources: On the imminent Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Disc...
Nov 26, 2024•1 hr 11 min
This week Juliette McIntyre, having just finished her PhD, asks the rest of the panel about career planning. Where should you aim to work, how much should you publish, when should you turn the PhD into a book, and do you ever recover from post PhD mental exhaustion? Featuring Ntina Tzouvala, Douglas Guilfoyle and Tamsin Paige. Recommendations: Ntina Tzouvala Andrea Lawlor, Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781529007671/ Tamsin: Seanan McGuire writing as Mira ...
Nov 14, 2024•1 hr 12 min
In this episode Douglas Guilfoyle hits the road for the Called to the Bar team and attends the American Branch of the International Law Association's "International Law Weekend" conference at Fordham University School of Law, New York and the Lieber Institute workshop at West Point. Along the way he chats with Chris Carpenter (PhD student, Cambridge), Martins Paparinskis (UCL, International Law Commission), Monique Cormier (Monash), Jay Batonbacal (University of the Philippines), Emily Crawford ...
Nov 07, 2024•25 min
In this episode Tamsin Phillipa Paige speaks with Juliana Santos de Carvalho about how we read the silences in international legal discourse and how some quasi-legal regimes (such as the women, peace and security agenda) are haunted by the shadow of legality. It's hauntology, just in time for Halloween! (Sort of.) Juliana also discusses what it's like to make a career in international law starting out as a first-in-family academic from a disadvantaged region of Brazil. Recommendations: Juliana S...
Nov 01, 2024•1 hr 10 min
This week Imogen Saunders chairs a discussion with Alex Green and Douglas Guilfoyle on their forthcoming article "The Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union Treaty: Statehood and Security in the Face of Anthropogenic Climate Change". Can a state still exist without land territory? Is the new Australia-Tuvalu treaty a landmark climate mobility agreement of a neo-colonial arrangement? An advance access version of the article is available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4961093 The...
Oct 23, 2024•1 hr 11 min
This week Imogen Saunders chairs a conversation with Douglas Guilfoyle and Ntina Tzouvala about the deal, announced on 3 October 2024 between Mauritius and the UK which transfers sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. This deal – once thought inconceivable – has caused a great deal of commentary in the international legal community. We delve into the issues and why death, taxes, and US bases are (international) life's only certainties. Recommendations! From Douglas: Articles by Douglas ...
Oct 17, 2024•1 hr 6 min
This week Juliette McIntyre talks with Tamsin Phillipa Paige and Aoife O'Donoghue about Security Council reform. Is it possible? (Spoiler: not really. Additional spoiler: Tamsin taps the sign.) Aoife's recommendations: Dipo Faloyin Africa is not a Country (Penguin, 2022) https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/444389/africa-is-not-a-country-by-faloyin-dipo/9781529114829 Priyasha Saksena, "Building the Nation: Sovereignty and International Law in the Decolonisation of South Asia". (2020) 23 Journal of th...
Oct 10, 2024•1 hr
