Asymmetrical Haircuts Podcast — Featuring Your Humble Narrator

Asymmetrical Haircuts is a brilliant new podcast on international criminal justice hosted by journalists Janet Anderson and Stephanie van den Berg. Check out their photos here and you’ll see where the podcast gets its name. I had the pleasure last month of being their token male interviewee; here is their description of our conversation:

Stephanie has a guilty secret. Or maybe after this podcast, not so secret after all. She’s pretty much addicted to the most awful, most sexist, most unbelievable drama about the international criminal court – the one and only Crossing Lines . If you haven’t tried it and want to have a good laugh, you should. Maybe it’s the hawkish profile of William Fichtner, maybe it’s the constant references to transnational crimes like kidnapping as the ICC prosecutor’s main raison d’etre, maybe we will never know (but she is deep in the third season). [sb: Actually it’s Richard Flood’s Irish accent and the over the top plot twists]

If you want to find out more about how international justice is being depicted in Hollywood – and we do mention the excellent Black Earth Rising this episode is for you.

And, we also talk about the effect that the attempt to get the ICC involved in a case via a next-door country – may have on the court’s way of operating. It concerns Bangladesh (member of the ICC) and Myanmar (not), and the potential investigation into the crime of forcible transfer of Muslim Rohingyas over that border as a crime against humanity. Will we see a lot more cases like this? For example, the Syrian authorities and civilians deported to Jordan. One of our favourite journalist-friendly academics, Kevin Jon Heller, joins us to discuss both ICC jurisdiction and blockbuster legal dramas . Yes, we know he’s a man. But in the interest of fairness, we will interview one or two occasionally as the podcast continues.

I had a great time talking to Janet and Stephanie; I’m glad they were able to see past my Y chromosome.

You can listen to the podcast on the Asymmetrical Haircuts website here. And make sure to listen to the other podcasts!