Research biography

Dr Imogen Saunders is an international law researcher with a strong international record of scholarship that addresses sources of international law, contemporary issues of international law (including the application of international law in new and emerging areas) and the history of international law. Her research draws on doctrinal analysis and archival work. She is currently working on projects on backlashes against international law, COVID-19 and international law and the history of women in international law.

Research projects & collaborations

• Navigating the Backlash against Global Law and Institutions - a collaberation between the Australian National University, the University of Maryland and Indiana University.
• COVID-19 and International Law - an ANU research collaberation.

Books & edited collections

• General Principles as a Source of International Law: Art 38(1)(c) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice (Hart, 2021)
• Rothwell, Kaye, Akhtar-Khavari, Davis and Saunders, International Law: Case and Materials with Australian Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 3rd ed 2018)

Refereed journal articles

• 'The Pandemic Paradox in International Law' (2020) 114 American Journal of International Law 598 (with P Danchin, J Farrall & S Rana)
• 'Populism, Backlash and the Ongoing Use of the World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement System: State Responses to the Appellate Body Crisis' (2020) 35 Maryland Journal of International Law 172
• ‘Navigating the backlash: re-integrating WTO and public international law?' (2020) 38 Australian Yearbook of International Law 134
• 'Navigating the Backlash against Global Law and Institutions' (2020) 38 Australian Yearbook of International Law 33 (with P Danchin, J Farrall, J Ford, S Rana and D Verhoeven)
• ‘Artificial Islands and Territory in International Law’ (2019) 52 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 643
• 'The South China Sea Award, Artificial Islands and Territory' (2017) 34 Australian Yearbook of International Law 31

Book chapters

• ‘Sarah Wambaugh – Life at the Frontiers of International Law’ in Tallgren, Immi (ed), Portraits of Women in International Law: New Names and Forgotten Faces? (Oxford University Press, under contract, forthcoming end of 2021)
• 'The Limits of the Natural State Doctrine: Rocks, islands and artificial intervention in a changing world' in Donald R. Rothwell and David Letts (eds), Law of the Sea in South East Asia: Environmental, Navigational and Security Challenges (Routledge, 2019)
• 'General principles of law and a source-based approach to the regulation of international security institutions’ in Hitoshi Nasu and Kim Rubenstein (eds), Legal Perspectives on Security Institutions (Cambridge University Press, 2015).
• 'International disaster relief law and Article 38(1)(c) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice: the forgotten source of international law' in David Caron, Michael Kelly and Anastasia Telesetky (eds), The International Law of Disaster Relief (Cambridge University Press, July 2014)

Conference papers & presentations

• 'The Pandemic Paradox in International Law' (ANU Webinar with H Charlesworth, J Farrall and A Roberts, October 2020)
• ‘Backlashes to the International Rules Based Order in Space’ delivered at Navigating the Backlash against Global Law and Institutions (ANU Global Research Partnerships Scheme Workshop between ANU, University of Indiana and the University of Maryland) Indiana University, 15 October 2019
• ‘When is an island not an island? Territory in the South China Sea – Rocks, Islands and Artificial Islands’ ANU Centre for Military and Security Law Conference, The Law of the Sea in the Asia Pacific Region: Opportunities, Threats and Challenges, Canberra, August 2017
• 'Territoriality and international law: Implications for the East China Sea' Inaugural joint Australian National University and Korean Association of the Law of the Sea workshop: Maritime delimitation, islands, security and dispute settlement: Korean and Australian perspectives on contemporary issues in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, Canberra, May 2016
• 'General Principles of Law from 1875 to 1920 and beyond: tracing a legacy of war and peace through the development of the third source of international law.' Paper presented, Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law 22nd Conference: Towards International Peace through International Law, Canberra, July 2014
• 'General Principles of Law and Disaster Risk Reduction: Applying Source Theory to International Disaster Relief Law' Paper written and Presented, Four Societies of International Law Conference, University of California, Berkeley, September 2012

Case notes & book reviews

• ‘[Book Review] General Principles of Law and International Due Process: Principles and Norms Applicable in Transnational Disputes' (2018) 36 Australian Yearbook of International Law 239

Other

• ‘Populism and pandemics: Backlashes against international law and COVID-19’ ANU College of Law International Law and COVID-19 series, 23 July 2020
• ‘Recalibrating international trade in the COVID-19 age’ ANU College of Law International Law and COVID-19 series, 29 April 2020
• ‘Does a US flag on the Moon amount to a claim of sovereignty under law?’ (with D Rothwell) The Interpreter, 25 July 2019
• ‘Australia and Indonesia trade: deal (not quite) done’ (with D Rothwell) The Interpreter, 14 March 2019.
• ‘The ‘Space Kingdom’ Asgardia has its own flag and anthem, but a state it is not’ The Conversation, 15 August 2018
• ‘Bogged Down in the South China Sea’ Policy Forum, 5 June 2018
• ‘Is TPP 2.0 good to go?’ (with D Rothwell) East Asia Forum, 3 December 2017