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?

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 Au Lait

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 shifting critical geography of space-as-environment:

• Valerie Olson and Lisa Messeri, ‘Beyond the Anthropocene: Un-Earthing an Epoch’ (2015) 6 Environment and Society 28: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26204949.

• Lisa Ruth Rand, ‘Space Is the Place: Extraplanetary Disorder in Histories of Science’ (2024) 9 BJHS Themes 59: https://doi.org/10.1017/bjt.2024.27.

On space environmentalism:

• Alessandra Marino, ‘Astroenvironmentalism as SF: Bordering (and Ordering) Otherworldly Ecologies’ (2023) 15 Environmental Humanities 25: https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-10216140.

• The Center for Space Environmentalism (2025): https://www.spaceenvironmentalism.org.

On the coloniality and colonial harms involved in space activity and space law:

• Karlie Noon and Krystal de Napoli, Sky Country (Margo Neale ed, Thames and Hudson 2022), available here.

• Cris van Eijk, ‘The Exclusive Making of Space Law’ [2025] Leiden Journal of International Law [FirstView]: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0922156524000554.

On space archaeology:

• In general: Alice Gorman, ‘Contact Zones and Outer Space Environments: A Feminist Archaeological Analysis of Space Habitats’ in James SJ Schwartz, Linda Billings and Erika Nesvold (eds), Reclaiming Space: Progressive and Multicultural Visions of Space Exploration (OUP 2023), 215-231: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197604793.003.0018.

• On her recent collaboration on archaeology aboard the ISS: Justin St P Walsh and others, ‘Archaeology in Space: The Sampling Quadrangle Assemblages Research Experiment (SQuARE) on the International Space Station. Report 1: Squares 03 and 05’ (2024) 19 PLOS ONE e0304229: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0304229.

Fiction!

• Maya Hoshimoto in Yume Kitasei's the Stardust Grail, available here.

Animal pictures:

Phasma: https://bsky.app/profile/staceyhenderson.bsky.social/post/3lb74z6agqk2d

The Admiral: https://bsky.app/profile/pagingdrpaige.bsky.social/post/3lnxepmkvac23

Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of Au Lait

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/2khJBoF73ujIATWUFtSxLD#login

Imogen Saunders: Populism, Backlash and the Ongoing Use of the World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement System: State Responses to the Appellate Body Crisis (for a history of the AB crisis): https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1710&context=mjil

Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of Au Lait

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 provide a lens for scholars, activists, and anyone seeking to reimagine justice on a global scale.

Recommendations include:

Claerwen O'Hara and Tamsin Phillipa Paige (eds), Queer Engagements with International Law: Times, Spaces, Imaginings (2025)

https://www.routledge.com/Queer-Engagements-with-International-Law-Times-Spaces-Imaginings/OHara-Paige/p/book/9781032643229?srsltid=AfmBOopQ4BhJS8P5Sx0fkcZD4pz8XBIKCnEWp3DdMOjq0yHVENZL6Q7N

Claerwen O'Hara and Tamsin Phillipa Paige (eds), Queer Encounters with International Law: Lives, Communities, Subjectivities (2025)

https://www.routledge.com/Queer-Encounters-with-International-Law-Lives-Communities-Subjectivities/Paige-OHara/p/book/9781032643045?srsltid=AfmBOoqkHSdqyc4fQ48xhySmAdAE7aKg2Z4HYo8-FUMhjqI1qR__R7Pw

Dianne Otto (ed), Queering International Law: Possibilities, Alliances, Complicities, Risks (2018)

https://www.routledge.com/Queering-International-Law-Possibilities-Alliances-Complicities-Risks/Otto/p/book/9780367886370?srsltid=AfmBOorTJz0gAv0KP37mUXtHaOImyhKk1eP-kKI5Vp-BBqnEgjjLm5oc

Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of Au Lait

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

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.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/612869/some-people-need-killing-by-patricia-evangelista/ ;

The Philippines Commission on Human Rights 2022 report on killings in the ant-illegal drug campaign, https://chr2bucket.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/08154849/CHR-National-Report-April-2022-Full-Final.pdf ;

"On the President's orders", https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/on-the-presidents-orders/.

Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of Au Lait

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/book/on-the-calculation-of-volume-book-i/

Başak recommends -

My Favourite Cake, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31015278/

Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of Au Lait

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/destroying-the-caroline/

"'We will make mistakes': Musk pressed on claim $50m of condoms sent to Gaza" (The Guardian)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2025/feb/12/musk-says-he-will-make-mistakes-and-that-he-double-checks-with-trump-video

Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of Au Lait