Called to the Bar: International Law over Drinks
A podcast of informal conversation about topical issues in international law, life in academia and whatever else is on our mind. Hosted by Douglas Guilfoyle and featuring Juliette McIntyre, Tamsin Paige, Imogen Saunders, Nitna Tzouvala. Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of Au Lait
Episodes
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 ...
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July 25, 2025 • 56 mins
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...
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July 4, 2025 • 36 mins
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 ...
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June 26, 2025 • 58 mins
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 Hist...
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June 19, 2025 • 40 mins
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: ...
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June 10, 2025 • 44 mins
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...
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May 30, 2025 • 65 mins
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.
Recommendation...
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May 23, 2025 • 72 mins
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 al...
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May 15, 2025 • 56 mins
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...
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May 9, 2025 • 51 mins
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 Jo...
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April 17, 2025 • 72 mins
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/po...
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April 9, 2025 • 50 mins
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 que...
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April 4, 2025 • 52 mins
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
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March 27, 2025 • 53 mins
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/...
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March 19, 2025 • 52 mins
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 - ...
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March 12, 2025 • 43 mins
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 ...
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March 4, 2025 • 66 mins
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 incl...
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February 26, 2025 • 60 mins
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 Univers...
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February 20, 2025 • 52 mins
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...
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February 12, 2025 • 55 mins
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 i...
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