International law is often imagined as a mechanism of accountability—a way to hold states and individuals responsible for criminal acts. But what if the system was never built to do that? In this final episode of “Lawyering Without Law,” hosts Madhav Khosla and Katy Glenn Bass are joined by Tom Dannenbaum, professor of law at Stanford, and Aslı Bâli, professor of law at Yale, to discuss what international law can and cannot do in a moment of mounting global crises. They examine why accountability at the international level has always been extremely rare—especially for powerful states—and reframe international law more as a system for political mobilization, legitimacy, and restraint.

Against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, U.S. strikes on Iran and in the Caribbean, and open contempt for international institutions from Washington and beyond, Dannenbaum and Bâli debate whether we are witnessing an erosion of the post-war order or a new assault on the very idea that law can constrain power at all.

Credits
Producer & Engineer: Dustin Foote
Hosts and Writers: Katy Glenn Bass & Madhav Khosla
Executive Producer: Candace White
Fact Checking: Arman Amin and Harriet Engelke
Art: Jay Vollmar
Music: Envato Elements
Archival Media: TRT World and USA Today

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