A podcast of casual conversation about topical issues in international law, life in academia and whatever else is on our mind.

Hosted by Douglas Guilfoyle and featuring Ntina Tzouvala, Juliette McIntyre and Imogen Saunders.

Coming soon.

Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of Au Lait.

Called to the Bar

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The final episode of season 1! This week Douglas Guilfoyle, Tamsin Phillipa Paige, Imogen Saunders, Juliette McIntyre review the year in international law, the year in their own careers and the life of the podcast, and breaking news regarding the International Criminal Court's issuance of arrest warrants in respect of the Situation in the State of Palestine. Strong language straight out of the gate!

Recommendations and resources:

On the imminent Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women case against Afghanistan: https://www.dfat.gov.au/news/media-release/launch-initiative-accountability-afghanistans-violations-cedaw-declaration

Tom Dannenbaum's explainer on ICC Arrest Warrants in the Situation in Palestine: https://www.justsecurity.org/105048/icc-arrest-warrants/

Summer reading: Anton Hur, Towards Eternity (Juliette's recommendation); Amor Towles, The Lincoln Highway (Imogen's recommendation); Gail Carriger's ParasolVerse novels (Tamsin's recommendation); Jeff Noon, A Man of Shadows (Douglas' recommendation).

Douglas in a West Point tar bucket: https://x.com/djag2/status/1852086476689060272/photo/1

Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of Au Lait

26. End of Year Drinks: The Year in Review

In this episode Ntina Tzouvala and Douglas Guilfoyle discuss one of the great misunderstood cases of international law: The Lotus Case. What is 'the Lotus principle'? Does the Lotus case even stand for it? How did the case come about and what was really at stake between Turkey and France?

Douglas and Ntina recommend reading:

Douglas Guilfoyle, "SS Lotus (France v Turkey) (1927)" in Landmark Cases in Public International Law. https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/landmark-cases-in-public-international-law-9781509918782/

Umut Özsu's article, "De-territorializing and Re-territorializing Lotus: Sovereignty and Systematicity as Dialectical Nation-Building in Early Republican Turkey," published in the Leiden Journal of International Law. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/leiden-journal-of-international-law/article/deterritorializing-and-reterritorializing-lotus-sovereignty-and-systematicity-as-dialectical-nationbuilding-in-early-republican-turkey/B4A1BF31CE88EFC6BA9B2758D8869750

"The Lotus Principle in ICJ Jurisprudence: Was the Ship Ever Afloat?" by Hugh Handeyside. https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjil/vol29/iss1/3/

"Letting Lotus Bloom" by An Hertogen, published in the European Journal of International Law. 

Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of Au Lait

27. What everyone gets wrong about the Lotus Case

In this episode Douglas Guilfoyle and Juliette McIntyre discuss President Trump's startling plans to "own" Gaza and resettle all its inhabitants elsewhere, the equally startling number of international laws this breaks, and what the media gets wrong in covering it.

28. Emergency cast: Trump's Gaza Plan (wtf?)

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 international courts?

Recommendations:

Gleider Hernández, The International Court of Justice and the Judicial Function, https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-international-court-of-justice-and-the-judicial-function-9780199646630 

Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of Au Lait

29.  Judges Behaving Badly? Plagiarism and Ethics at International Courts

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 Wales).

Recommendations

Trevor Findlay, That Sinking Feeling: The AUKUS Submarines and the Nonproliferation Regime
https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/that-sinking-feeling-the-aukus-submarines-and-the-nonproliferation-regime/ 

William Greenwalt and Tob Corben, AUKUS Enablers? Assessing Defence Trade Control Reforms in Australia and the United States (United States Studies Centre, 2024), 8, https://www.ussc.edu.au/aukus-assessing-defence-trade-control-reforms-in-australia-and-the-united-states

30. What the Aukus?

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 University of Wollongong). All guests are speaking in their personal capacity and their views should not be attributed to their employers or clients, past or present.

Recommendations include:

Rob Mclaughlin, "‘Giving’ Operational Legal Advice: Context and Method" (2011) 50 Military Law and the Law of War Review 99 (paywall) https://www.elgaronline.com/view/journals/mllwr/50/1/article-p99.xml

Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of Au Lait

31. International law in practice (or is it practise?)

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 include:

Tamsin Paige, "Petulant and Contrary: Approaches by the Permanent Five Members of the UN Security Council to the Concept of 'threat to the peace' under Article 39 of the UN Charter" (Chapter 1), https://brill.com/display/title/54194?language=en

Frank Moorhouse, "Dark Palace" (on the end of the League of Nations) 
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/dark-palace-9780143790914

What Douglas was wearing: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:6224ogbnhmjhtpjoteynx4hk/post/3ljiyhoop342r

Music: Sam Barsh, Oils of Au Lait

32 Group Therapy: So Long and Thanks for all the International Law

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


33. What everyone gets wrong about the Caroline "Case"

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

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Called to the Bar - International Law over Drinks

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