AsPr Imogen Saunders

Dr Imogen Saunders completed her undergraduate degrees in law and science at the University of Western Australia, and was awarded her PhD from the Australian National University in 2013.

Imogen researches in public international law. She is lead CI on the ARC Discovery Project 'Reconceiving Engagement in International Law in a Populist Era' (2022-2027).

Imogen's book General Principles as a Source of Law (Hart, 2021) has been cited by the International Law Commission, in submissions to the International Criminal Court and is described as "stunning work in the finest traditions of the greatest international law thinkers" (the Hon Justice James Edelman, High Court of Australia).

Imogen is a world-leading scholar on Sarah Wambaugh, an influential figure in the history of international law.  Imogen's chapter on Wambaugh in Portraits of Women in International Law: New Names and Forgotten Faces (OUP, 2023)  drew on original archival research to present previously unpublished data and facts on Wambaugh.  The book won the 2024 American Society of International Law Certificate of Merit for a Preeminent Contribution to Creative Scholarship and 2024 Joseph Fletcher Prize for Best Edited Book in Historical International Relations from the International Studies Association.

As part of her ARC Discovery Project 'Reconceiving Engagement with International Law in a Populist Era' Imogen has presented her research at the University of Maryland (2023), the University of Cape Town (2023), the University of the Philippines (2024), Ataneo de Manila University (2024), the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at Cambridge University (2024), the Graduate Institute Studies in Geneva (2024) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (2024).

Imogen has published in field leading journals such as the American Journal of International Law, the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law and the Australian Yearbook of International Law.  In addition to that already listed, her work covers issues of territory and international law, artificial islands and the law of the sea, climate change and international law, sources of international law, international trade law and the work of the international court of justice.

Imogen is the Director of the Centre for International and Public Law at the ANU College of Law.  She teaches international law subjects in the LLB, JD and LLM programs.

BSc, LLB (Hons) (UWA); PhD (ANU)

Public International Law

Populism and International Law

Women and International Law

The International Court of Justice

International Institutions

The United Nations

The Law of the Sea

International Trade Law