Catch up on those international law podcasts

Listening to podcasts on international law can be a great way to stay engaged and continue learning. Whether you're an academic, international law student or professional, or just interested in the topic, we have selected 10 international law-related podcasts that will cater to your interests. Enjoy! 

1. The ICJ: More than a dispute settlement body? A conversation with Prof. Ingo Venzke.
Does it make sense to speak of universal values and their evocation in international law? Was the reaction of the Court in its ‘Order of 16 March 2022’ expected? What is the value of provisional measures set up by the Court? In The Hague Courts Dialogue Series, the Asser Institute's Dr Carl Lewis discusses the case of Allegations of Genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Ukraine v. Russian Federation), currently pending at the International Court of Justice, with Prof. Ingo Venzke of the University of Amsterdam.

2. Questioning nationality at the ICJ: the Nottebohm case
In this episode of the Hague Courts Dialogue Series, Dr Carl Lewis (Asser Institute) discusses the International Court of Justice’s 1955 Nottebohm (Liechtenstein v. Guatemala) judgment with Dr Péter D. Szigeti of the University of Alberta. What is special about this case? What questions has it left open? And ought the ICJ reconsider the role international law perhaps should play in respect to certain questions concerning the nationality of individuals? 

3. Can we promote human rights whilst holding major sporting events?
With the 2022 FIFA World Cup being held in Qatar, the topic of human rights has become a central conversation of interest. Dr Daniela Heerdt (researcher in the field of sport and human rights at the Asser Institute) joins The House of Wisdom podcast series to discuss how holding a major sporting event can help promote human rights within the region and the fact that major sports organisations such as the IOC and FIFA consider human rights criteria in their decision-making process.

4. Does the European Court of Human Rights Matter?
Former UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman argued that the European Court of Human Rights is an interventionist, politicised, foreign court and its convention, the European Convention on Human Rights, doesn't allow the UK to 'deal with illegal migration' due to human rights claims. The House of Wisdom podcast series interviews Asser Institute counterterrorism expert Dr Rumyana Van Ark to review the position adopted by Braverman in order to discuss the important role the ECHR has played in protecting the rights of individuals and the manner in which it has helped deal with some of most important human rights issues within the region.

5. Sportslaw, the world cup and human rights. Senior researcher and sport law expert at the Asser Institute, Dr Antoine Duval joins GLAW-Net (Maastricht University) to discuss sports law, the world cup, and human rights. 

6. Ukrainian war crimes trials with Ukrainian judges
Leaving the court every time the alarm goes off and working around power cuts that have halved working days to four hours. These are some of the working conditions of judges in Ukraine. The potential war crimes cases being investigated now amount to 36.000. How are Ukrainian judges managing these pressures? During the recent MATRA- Ukraine Conference organised by the T.M.C. Asser Instituut with Global Rights Compliance, international justice podcast makers Asymmetrical Haircuts talked to Ukrainian judges Hanna Maina and Svitlana Yakovleva about their realities and how the Ukrainian judiciary is adapting.

7. International Criminal Law and Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems: autonomous weapons and accountability
Asser Institute researcher Dr Marta Bo talks to the Law and Future of War podcast series about autonomous weapons and accountability under international criminal law. How can individuals be held to account for misuses of lethal autonomous weapons.

8. Lethal Autonomous Weapons: 10 things we want to know
Lethal Autonomous Weapons: 10 things we want to know is a podcast series produced as part of the LAWS and War Crimes research project, based at the International Law department of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.
In episode 10, Will military swarms be the next weapon of mass destruction?, Dr Marta Bo (Asser Institute and Graduate Institute, Geneva) discusses military lethal weapons.

9. On Air: IR in the age of AI: On Realizing Meaningful Human Control in Military AI with Taylor Woodcock
Podcast series On Air: IR in the age of AI talks to Asser Institute's Taylor Woodcock about the implications of the development and use of military applications of AI for the international legal obligations applicable in armed conflict under international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Taylor discusses today’s ‘overshadowing focus on autonomous weapon systems (aws) in warfare’, and the consequential lack of attention to other military applications of artificial intelligence, such as the use of data-driven algorithms to assist with target recognition, decision-making aids, for military tasking and to support intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

10. Mexico versus Smith & Wesson (in Spanish)
Asser Institute researcher León Castellanos-Jankiewicz has followed the Mexico v. Smith & Wesson case from the start and analysed the ground-breaking use of transnational litigation. In the Hablemos Derecho Internacional podcast series Edgardo Sobenes talks to Dr. León Castellanos Jankiewicz about the case brought by Mexico against US gun companies in the Federal District Court of Massachusetts (Mexico v. Smith & Wesson). León clarifies the factual aspects of the case, and explains the specific claims and requests of Mexico, as well as the position taken by the gun companies. He discusses the background to the case, gun violence in Mexico, illegal arms trafficking, the socio-political context in the US, and much more.