What happens when an athlete is punished for doping, but the athlete has no idea how the drugs entered their system?

In 2019 the Australian swimming world was rocked by news that champion swimmer Shayna Jack had returned a positive test for a banned performance enhancing drug.

The ensuing legal battle, including the penalties awarded against Jack, has exposed the challenges athletes face under current global anti-doping rules.

Guests:

• Paul Horvath, Principal at SportsLawyer. Lawyer for Shayna Jack
• Associate Professor Catherine Ordway, Sport Integrity Research Lead, University of Canberra

Case: 

• Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) v. Shayna Jack & Swimming Australia, CAS 2021/A/7579 & 7580, 16 September 2021

Further Reading:

• Tennis is facing an existential crisis over doping. How will it respond? by Catherine Ordway (The Conversation, January 2025)
• The US has exposed the World Anti-Doping Agency’s precarious funding model by Catherine Ordway (The Conversation, January 2025)
• Paul Horvath speaks on ABC Sport Podcast about the Jannik Sinner doping case (ABC Sport, February 2025)
• Doping to Win: The Risks for Feeder Clubs and Their Athletes by Alexandria Anthony (SportsLawyer blog, February 2025)
• Australia Anti-Doping Processes: Balancing a Level Playing Field Against Unintentional Offences by Paul Horvath (SportsLawyer, December 2024)
• Ethics in Sports: Mitigating Risk for Sports Organisations by Paul Horvath (SportsLawyer, October 2024)

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This is the story of how the Cold War turned an island paradise into one of the most strategically important US military bases in the world—and the people left behind.

In the 1960s and 70s, Britain forcibly removed an entire population from the Indian Ocean to make way for the Diego Garcia US military base—then spent decades denying it had happened.

This decades-long legal battle has pitted Mauritius against the United Kingdom across multiple international courts, challenging Britain's sovereignty claims and seeking justice for the exiled population.

Guest: Professor Douglas Guilfoyle, University of New South Wales

Further info:

• Check out Douglas's podcast Called to the Bar: International Law Over Drinks.
• Litigation as legal statecraft: Small states and the law of the sea, by Douglas Guilfoyle (Centre for International Law Blog, National University of Singapore, 7 July 2023)
• The Chagos Archipelago Before International Tribunals: Strategic Litigation and the Production Of Historical Knowledge, by Douglas Guilfoyle (Melbourne Journal of International Law)
• Chagos islanders make historic trip home without British escort (BBC News, 16 February 2022)
• The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain's Colonial Legacy by Philippe Sands & Martin Rowson
• UK Foreign Secretary's statement on the Chagos Islands (7 October 2024)

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The arrival of two men in the frontier town of Melbourne sparks a chain of events that ends with a brutal execution witnessed by thousands.

Were these men criminals or resistance fighters?

Guest: Professor Lynette Russell AM, Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor and Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow, Monash University

Case: The trial and execution of Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner (Melbourne, 1842)

Further Reading: Auty, K., & Russell, L. (2016). Hunt Them, Hang Them: 'The Tasmanians' in Port Phillip 1841-42. (1 ed.) Justice Press.

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A series of strange events kicking off in 1868 has massive implications for ownership of human body parts.

This curious court case has overthrown our legal understanding of who owns our bodies (living or dead), and could lead to a RoboCop style distopian nightmare. 

Guest: Dr Marc Trabsky, Associate Professor of Law, La Trobe University. www.lifedeathandlaw.com

Case: Doodeward v Spence [1908] HCA 45; (1908) 6 CLR 406 (31 July 1908)

Further info: 

One day, your body might be owned by an evil corporation because of what's inside this glass jar. (The Object in Question, February 2026)

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Would you take a friend to court to settle a dispute? Could this be awkward? 

This is what Australia did with Japan, a key friend and ally, in 2014 over Japan's refusal to stop killing whales in the Southern Ocean. 

Special guest Mark Dreyfus is Attorney-General of Australia. 

Mark represented Australia in the culmination of a 40-year diplomatic stoush between Australia and Japan which went all the way to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. 

Case: Whaling in the Antarctic (Australia v. Japan) (2014)

Guest: Mark Dreyfus KC MP, Attorney-General of Australia

🎙️ Case In Point is produced by MINIATURE. Start your expert-led podcast today 👉 www.miniaturecreative.com.au

In 2017 a little-known Australian technologist develops a revolutionary form of facial recognition technology. Clearview AI is being used by law enforcement agencies to hunt down criminals.

But is there a catch?

A series of legal disputes around the world are among the most stark and alarming of our time.

Guest: Professor Jeannie Paterson, University of Melbourne (Co-Director, Centre for AI and Digital Ethics)

Update: Since recording, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner released this Statement on Clearview AI (21 August 2024). 

Further info: 

• The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It by Kashmir Hill (The New York Times, 18 January 2020)
• Clearview AI breached Australians’ privacy: Statement by Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (3 November 2021)
• ACLU v. Clearview AI case summary (American Civil Liberties Union, 11 May 2022)
• Facial recognition startup Clearview AI settles privacy suit (AP News, 22 June 2024)

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It's 2003. An Australian man is captured by US forces in Afghanistan and imprisoned at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on terrorism charges. 

The prisoner's defence lawyer is a United States Marine Corps lawyer named Dan Mori. 

He's about to be thrust onto the world stage in a fight against his own country's military and political establishment. 

(Update: The US government has revoked a plea deal with the men accused of plotting the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi.)

Guest: Dan Mori, Legal Consultant, Shine Lawyers; LtCol, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)

Case: David M. Hicks v United States of America, CMCR 13-004 (2015) (PDF)

Further info:

• Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 (2006) (PDF) 
• Sworn charges: Providing Material Support for Terrorism; and Attempted Murder in Violation of the Law of War" , Military Commissions: David M. Hicks. US Department of Defense (1 March 2007) (PDF)

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Grave robbers, AI law enforcement, international diplomatic beefs!

Introducing Case In Point, the stories behind some of the most amazing court cases you need to know about.

Each episode a special guest picks a weird and wonderful court case with an epic backstory. 

Hosted by Melissa Castan (Professor of Law at Monash University) and James Pattison (the guy who's not a Professor of Law at Monash University).

🎙️ Case In Point is produced by MINIATURE.
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