International Law Behind the Headlines

Peter Singer is Senior Fellow at New America, author of Wired for War and LikeWar, and one of the nation’s leading experts on the evolution of armed conflict. We discuss the revolutions underway in drone warfare, AI, and robotics and their implications for international law.

In this episode, Professor Monica Hakimi of Columbia discusses the international law governing sieges, how it interacts with IHL generally, and its application to the conflict in Gaza.

Reports from the Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly indicate a willingness from member States to finalize the Pandemic Treaty ­– a proposed legal framework that endeavors to coordinate the global response to future pandemics – within the next year. In this episode, WHO Principal Legal Officer Steven Solomon and WHO Senior Legal Officer Kenneth Piercy join us to pull back the curtain on the treaty negotiations so far and, with an eye to the future, discuss what a concluded Treaty could mean for global pandemic preparedness.

A month after this year’s International Women’s Day and as we approach the eighty-eighth session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (the “CEDAW Committee”), we must ask: where do we collectively stand in light of the ongoing and new threats to the rights of girls and women around the world, and what comes next? Join us as Professor Rangita de Silva de Alwis of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Harvard Kennedy School of Government, explores the current time of “great promise and great peril” for the rights of women and girls and the role of the CEDAW Committee in shaping the future of gender equality.

The 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (“COP28”) concluded on December 13, 2023—with almost 200 countries signing a landmark Stocktake agreement and wide agreement to transition away from fossil fuels. Many commentators have heralded COP28 as a success. Was it, and what comes next for meaningful climate action in the lead-up to COP29? Join us in conversation with Dr. Christina Voigt, Professor of Law at the University of Oslo and Co-Chair of the Paris Agreement Implementation and Compliance Committee, as we look back at COP28, look ahead to COP29, and assess opportunities for effective action to address climate change and its impacts.

From new launches, private and public, into outer space to the growing challenge of “space debris,” space is a growing challenge for international lawyers. We discuss some of the current and emerging issues with Ina Popova, partner in the international dispute resolution group at Debevoise and Plimpton.

Just Security Editors in Chief Tess Bridgeman and Ryan Goodman join Kal to discuss some of the hardest legal questions raised by the current conflict in Israel and Gaza. Topics include civilian-combatant distinctions; human shields; the law of siege and occupation; and the targeting of hospitals and other special facilities.

In this episode, we speak with the first chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to discuss the recent actions of the ICC against Vladimir Putin.

In this episode, Catherine Amirfar interviews co-host Kal Raustiala about his new book, The Absolutely Indispensable Man: Ralph Bunche, the United Nations, and the Fight to End Empire.

How does feminist thought intersect with international law? Catherine Powell and Adrien Wing join Kal to discuss the recent AJIL Unbound symposium on feminist theories of international law.