Thinking with Jurisdiction

Abstract

This text is based on a transcription of the keynote address given at the conference 'Who Speaks International Law', held in Bonn, Germany on 4 September 2021. We (Shaun and Sundhya) participated virtually, from Melbourne, Australia. Originally, we had suggested a conversational format for our joint keynote. The organisers then requested that we also make our keynote a bit more interactive than usual. And so, we conducted a kind of experiment in which we -Shaun and Sundhya -spoke together in a stylised conversation for 20 minutes. We then paused for about 10 minutes to hear questions and comments from the audience. We gathered those questions rather than answering them, noting them down on an electronic whiteboard everyone could see, and then spoke extemporaneously for another 20 minutes in response to the questions, comments, and the themes they raised. At the end, we took another round of questions in the traditional style. What follows is an edited version of the first twenty minutes. We have presented it here as a stylised dialogue, largely maintaining the spoken tone and conversational style (and some repetition). We have added references, and in some parts, a little elaboration for clarity, drawing on the conversation that followed.