Fifty episodes in, and we’re still going strong (and still without footnotes). In this special milestone edition of Called to the Bar: International Law Over Drinks, host Douglas Guilfoyle (Professor of International Law and Security, UNSW Canberra) is joined by the full crew: Dr Juliette McIntyre (University of South Australia), A/Prof Imogen Saunders (ANU Law School), A/Prof Tamsin Phillipa Paige (Deakin Law School), and A/Prof Ntina Tzouvala (UNSW Sydney).

To mark our 50th outing, we flipped the format and handed the reigns to you, our listeners, who supplied the questions. From “How would you found your own State?” to “What procedural rule would you change at the ICJ?”, from fixing international law to picking our favourite PCIJ judges, the crew fields questions that are thoughtful, fun, and sometimes downright hard to answer without more coffee.

Along the way we debate national animals, missing voices in international law, and even who should play us in the clearly inevitable Netflix series.

Pour yourself a glass, join the conversation, and celebrate with us as Called to the Bar hits its half-century.

Recommendations:

On Australian treaty law: https://www.hcourt.gov.au/cases-and-judgments/judgments/judgments-2000-current/minister-immigration-and-multicultural-and-indigenous-affairs-v-b

On Greek poetry: https://wordscene.wordpress.com/2019/08/12/the-last-stop-by-seferis/

What Douglas was wearing: https://bsky.app/profile/djag2.bsky.social/post/3ltjl5shjuc2x

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, Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Auckland, who represented the Government of the Cook Islands.

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 Jurisdiction – known as the BBNJ Agreement or High Seas Treaty for short.

Recommendations:

D Bodansky, "Four Treaties in One: The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement", https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/article/four-treaties-in-one-the-biodiversity-beyond-national-jurisdiction-agreement/9AAFCE1E5F60EF1ABF83AC8DB3829605

Fran Humphries (ed), "Decoding Marine Genetic Resource Governance Under the BBNJ Agreement", https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-72100-7

Joanna Mossop and David Freestone, "The Agreement on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction: Commentary and Analysis" https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-agreement-on-marine-biodiversity-of-areas-beyond-national-jurisdiction-9780198918578?cc=au&lang=en&

Elizabeth Moon, Paksenarrion Series, https://www.goodreads.com/series/49608-paksenarrion

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-inter-american-court-of-human-rights-advisory-opinion-on-the-climate-emergency-a-global-south-contribution-to-climate-governance/

Juan Auz, The Political Ecology of Climate Remedies in Latin America and the Caribbean, https://academic.oup.com/jhrp/article/16/1/182/7571304

Thea Riofrancos, The Security–Sustainability Nexus: Lithium Onshoring in the Global North Open Access, https://direct.mit.edu/glep/article/23/1/20/111308/The-Security-Sustainability-Nexus-Lithium

Brett Christophers, The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet, https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3069-the-price-is-wrong?srsltid=AfmBOooLscbjPoSutKIMFM7mhnMXn2UBAFNVEScYMddvkkhT6YUgtOcU

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?

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/pdf_file/0007/1673215/bs12.pdf

Donald R Rothwell and Tim Stephens, The International Law of the Sea, https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/international-law-of-the-sea-9781509958382/

Imogen Saunders, 'The Limits of the Natural State Doctrine: Rocks, islands and artificial intervention in a changing world' in Rothwell and Letts (eds), Law of the Sea in South East Asia, https://www.routledge.com/Law-of-the-Sea-in-South-East-Asia-Environmental-Navigational-and-Security-Challenges/Rothwell-Letts/p/book/9781032240718

Douglas Guilfoyle, The South China Sea Award: How Should We Read the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea?, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/asian-journal-of-international-law/article/south-china-sea-award-how-should-we-read-the-un-convention-on-the-law-of-the-sea/DD5B90D9438D8B3C55BC57EA6D8CD175

Micehlle Magorian, Goodnight Mister Tom (1981)

William Golding, Lord of the Flies (1954)

Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of Au Lait

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

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 Mavi Marmara Incident and Blockade in Armed Conflict, https://academic.oup.com/bybil/article/81/1/171/329512

Phillip Drew, The Law of Maritime Blockade: Past, Present, and Future, https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-law-of-maritime-blockade-9780198808435

Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of Au Lait

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 Tyranny of Law and the Queer Feminisation of Soft Power as Explored in Black Sails, https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/pol-2023-2014/html

Douglas Guilfoyle, The Laws of War and the Fight against Somali Piracy: Combatants or Criminals?, https://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/1686284/Guilfoyle.pdf

Black Sails (TV Series 2014–2017), http://imdb.com/title/tt2375692/

Our Flag Means Death (TV Series 2022–2023), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11000902/

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 difficult?