International Law Behind the Headlines

Duncan Hollis, Professor at Temple and editor of The Oxford Guide to Treaties, joins Kal to discuss what makes a treaty, how to think about the Iran deal, and why this issue matters.

Can Iran Levy Tolls on the Strait of Hormuz? Transit passage and the law of the sea with James Kraska, Charles Stockton Professor of international Maritime Law at the US Naval War College.

Tariffs are back and they’re reshaping the international economic landscape in real time. The second Trump administration has unleashed a wave of trade measures that shift by the week, justified by goals that include everything from fighting unfair trade practices, to making everyday goods more affordable for American consumers, to national security. So where does international law fit in? And can the multilateral trading system absorb the shock? Catherine is joined by former U.S. Trade Representative and now Executive Director of the Coalition for New Trade, Ambassador Katherine Tai, for a candid conversation about what’s driving these policies, what they’re disrupting, and what the road ahead looks like.

Boarding and Seizing Ships (and related Caribbean issues) with Michael Scharf, President of the American Branch of the International Law Association

Former Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Larry Johnson joins the podcast to explain the legal underpinnings of this year’s controversy at the UN General Assembly over visas and visa restrictions for diplomats from Palestine and Iran.

In the past year, three international courts and tribunals—the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR)—have issued advisory opinions on the obligations of countries with respect to climate change. In the context of the ongoing UN General Assembly in NYC, this episode features a conversation between Catherine Amirfar and Payam Akhavan, who have served as counsel to multiple countries in those proceedings, to discuss the opinions, their impact, and next steps, especially for climate vulnerable countries.

In this episode with speak with Katerina Linos of UC Berkeley and Mark Pollack of Temple University about their project to interview the judges of the EU’s primary court system, and the implications for European integration, international law, and our understanding of how international judges behave.

What does the law of treaties—and jus ad bellum—say about peace treaties? We discuss these issues, the history of peace treaties, and their possible future with Greg Fox, who has written widely on peace agreements and their evolution.

On this episode Samantha Rowe, partner in the London office of Debevoise and Plimpton, joins the podcast to discuss the recent Trump executive order aimed at jumpstarting deep seabed mining, the role of the International Seabed Authority, and evolving custom in the law of the sea.

This episode considers the implications of a second Trump administration for international law and policy in the United States and explores the future of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Catherine speaks with Amy Porges, a long-time practitioner of international trade law who participated in drafting the WTO agreements, and later represented the United States before the WTO as Senior Counsel for Dispute Settlement and head of enforcement at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. This episode examines the history of the WTO and the United States’s relationship with the organization, including considering the potential approach of the Trump administration to tariffs.