Oxford Undergraduate Law Podcast

From the boundaries of implied consent in contact sports to antitrust disputes in collegiate programmes, legal rules both shape and respond to sporting practice. In this episode, we take a closer look at anti-doping regulation and the difficult balance it seeks to strike between protecting the rights of athletes and enforcing the rules of the game. Bonnie had the privilege of sitting down with Dr Jan Exner to consider anti-doping regulation and the frameworks that guide liability and sanctions.
Dr Exner is an Assistant Professor in EU and Sports Law at the Law Faculty of Charles University and a partner at Fairzone, a sports-law firm. He contributes to the development of sports regulation, particularly in the areas of compliance, the proportionality of sanctions and the impact of EU Law on sports regulation. Most recently, his commentary on doping sanctions has been recognised in the draft 2027 World Anti-Doping Code.

When one is faced with a complex, multi-jurisdictional dispute, many questions may arise: Which court is the dispute to be resolved in? What law is applicable? Can the award rendered in one country be enforced in another? In response to these pertinent questions, Professor Reyes says that international arbitration is the answer.

Professor Anselmo Reyes SC is a world-renowned international arbitrator, International Judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC), a member of the International Expert Committee of the China International Commercial Court and a member of various arbitration institutions across London, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. In Michaelmas Term 2025, Isaac Tan, a Podcast Editor of the Oxford University Undergraduate Law Journal had the opportunity to sit down with Professor Reyes and discuss the principles of international arbitration; arbitrators’ duties; comparisons between the jurisdictions of the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Singapore; and the future of private international law.

Many of us scrutinise science and technology much less than we do the law. The field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) directly interrogates this incongruence. An interdisciplinary field, STS sees science and technology not as existing in a vacuum, but as producing types of authorities that can be studied just as much as law. Although science and technology are often treated as higher authorities that the law must follow as it inevitably lags behind, Professor Sheila Jasanoff (founder and director of the Harvard STS Program) rejects this characterisation.
In November 2025, Professor Jasanoff delivered the Oxford Clarendon Law Lecture Series this year, together entitled ‘Science, Technology and the Constitution of Modernity’. The conversation in this episode is separate but complementary to these lectures. The first portion of the episode elucidates the key conceptual ideas pertinent to STS thinking and its relation to law. The latter portion questions the more specific positions Professor Jasanoff has voiced in her works regarding intellectual property, especially in relation to the most recent legal developments, such as the environment, AI, and the concept of personhood.
Each of the Clarendon Law Lectures can be accessed below:
Part 1: https://youtu.be/1pp07pHzGTY?si=Op27oAPfJp7XdDrd
Part 2: https://youtu.be/QWxI-ybskEE?si=GItwlb0sROgK895C
Part 3: https://youtu.be/8UaHoB8oZic?si=pOwpdY5-bMpE0fMv

Straits are incredibly important for international shipping, energy security, and military purposes. However, climate change, ecological vulnerability, and piracy are testing the international legal framework governing the straits used for international navigation around the world. Professor Nilufer Oral discusses these challenges in her paper - 'Navigating the Oceans: Old and New Challenges for the Law of the Sea for Straits Used in International Navigation’. Rachel is honoured to interview her today in a summer guest episode.
Professor Nilufer Oral is Director of the Centre of International Law at the National University of Singapore. Amongst her many accomplishments, she is a member of the UN International Law Commission (ILC) and was the Chairperson of the 74th session of the ILC. She is a Co-chair of the ILC Study Group on sea-level rise in relation to international law, and is currently a Member of the Committee of Legal Experts of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS).
Transcript available at: https://rss.com/podcasts/oulp/2207117/#transcript

The jurisdiction of England and Wales has one of the highest numbers of children in detention across Western Europe, and is one of the few jurisdictions in Europe that still has mandatory life sentences for children. Given the frequency and severity of punitive measures levied towards children in England and Wales, it is all the more important that children are adequately represented in sentencing and appeal processes. However, whether this is a reality is a question that Elysia Boon explores in this episode with Dr Laura Janes.
Dr Janes is a consultant solicitor at GT Stewart Solicitors and Scott-Moncrieff and Associates. She specialises in prison law, criminal appeals, mental health law and public law, with a particular focus on representing children, youth and vulnerable people in detention both in penal and mental health settings. She is also the founder of Young Legal Aid Lawyers, holds a professional doctorate in youth justice, and teaches at the London South Bank University. Most recently, she was appointed honorary King’s Council!
Publications and cases referenced/drawn from:
ZA v R [2023] EWCA Crim 596
R v S [2010] EWCA Crim 1462
Children Convicted of Sexual Offences: Do Lifelong Labels Really Help? (The Howard Journal Vol 50 No 2. May 2011)
JF & Anor, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2009] EWCA Civ 792
Child appeals (Solicitors Journal: Justice Gap series, 2012)
R (on the application of M) v Chief Magistrate [2010] EWHC 433