Professor Gina Heathcote

Adjunct Professor

Email: gina.heathcote@nd.edu.au

  • Biography

    Professor Heathcote researches across public international law, collective security, ocean governance and legal methodologies. Her current research examines the possibility for decolonising ocean governance through learning from place-based knowledge. She is the recipient of a Leverhulme Trust Interdisciplinary Fellowship (2025-2027) titled Saltwater Law that explores methodologies for two-way legal approaches through learning from sea country leadership and practices in the Kimberley, as well as a British Academy International Fellowship (2026-2028) titled Ocean Harmonies that examines the capacity for saltwater knowledge and expertise from the Kimberley to influence the 2023 Agreement under the Convention on the International Law of the Sea on Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction.

  • Teaching Areas

    • Public International Law
    • Applied Research Methods
    • Law and Ethics
    • Law and Gender

  • Research Expertise and Supervision

    International Law; Collective Security; women, peace and security; ocean governance; gender and the law of the sea; legal methodologies, including decolonial approaches to law

  • Books

    • Heathcote, G. (2027). The international law of the sea: A feminist analysis. In Press
    • Heathcote, G., Jones, E., Labenski, S., & Kula, L. (2026). The law of war and peace: A gender analysis (Vol. 2). Bloomsbury Press.
    • Bertotti, S., Heathcote, G., Jones, E., & Labenski, S. (2021). The law of war and peace: A gender analysis (Vol. 1). Bloomsbury Press.
    • Heathcote, G. (2019). Feminist dialogues on international law. Oxford University Press.
    • Heathcote, G., & Otto, D. (Eds.). (2014). Rethinking peacekeeping, gender equality and collective security. Palgrave.
    • Heathcote, G. (2012). The law on the use of force: A feminist analysis. Routledge

  • Book Chapters

    • Heathcote, G. (2026). Plural legal feminist approaches to everyday, enduring and environmental violence. In N. Godden-Rasul & S. L. Kula (Eds.), Research handbook on gender, violence and law. Edward Elgar.
    • Heathcote, G. (2026). Equality and discrimination. In I. Papanicolopulu & A. Petrig (Eds.), Human rights at sea. Oxford University Press.
    • Heathcote, G. (2026). International law of the sea. In K. Keane & R. Maguire (Eds.), Research handbook on feminist approaches to environmental law. Edward Elgar.
    • Heathcote, G. (2026). From obligations erga omnes toward Lometo obligations. In A. Ollino & I. Papanicolopulu (Eds.), The concept of obligation in international law. Oxford University Press.
    • Heathcote, G. (2024). Feminist perspectives. In S. Scott, J. McGee, & T. Stephens (Eds.), Geopolitical change and the Antarctic Treaty System: Historical lessons, current challenges. Springer.
    • Heathcote, G. (2024). Oceans versus ghost ships. In T. Paige & C. O’Hara (Eds.), Queer engagements with international law. Routledge.
    • Heathcote, G. (2024) Oceanic knowledges, posthuman theories and legal encounters in the ocean. In M. Arvidsson & E. Jones (Eds.), International law and posthuman theory. Routledge.
    • Jones, E., van Eijk, C., & Heathcote, G. (2024). The common heritage of kin-kind. In M. Arvidsson & E. Jones (Eds.), International law and posthuman theory. Routledge.
    • Heathcote, G., & Lwubukuna, O. (2023). Gender and sexuality. In R. Buchanan, L. Eslava, & S. Pahuja (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of international law and development. Oxford University Press.
    • Heathcote, G., & Grady, K. (2023). Jane Addams and the law of peace. In I. Tallgren (Ed.), Unknown names and faces: Broadening the portrait gallery of international law. Oxford University Press.
    • Heathcote, G., & Zichi, P. (2021). Feminist methodologies. In N. Tsagourias & R. Deplano (Eds.), Handbook on the methodologies of international law. Edward Elgar.
    • Heathcote, G. (2021). Protesting the preamble: Normative pronouncements and feminist jurisprudence in the Security Council. In S. Ratner & I. Johnstone (Eds.), Talking international law: International legal argumentation outside the courtroom. Oxford University Press.
    • Heathcote, G. (2021). Gendered security. In R. Geiss & N. Melzer (Eds.), Oxford handbook of international law in global security. Oxford University Press.
    • Chinkin, C., Heathcote, G., Jones, E., & Jones, H. (2019). Bozkurt case (aka the Lotus case) France v Turkey: Two ships that go bump in the night. In L. Hodson & J. T. Lavers (Eds.), Feminist Judgments in International Law. Hart Publishing.
    • Heathcote, G. (2019). Feminism and the law of the sea. In I. Papanicolopulu (Ed.), Gender issues and the law of the sea. Brill.
    • Heathcote, G. (2018). Humanitarian intervention and gender dynamics. In N. Cahn, D. Haynes, F. Ní Aoláin, & N. Valji (Eds.), Oxford handbook on gender and conflict. Oxford University Press.
    • Heathcote, G. (2017). LAWs, UFOs and UAVs: Feminist encounters with the law of armed conflict. In P. Babie & D. Stephens (Eds.), Imagining law: Essays in conversation with Judith Gardam. University of Adelaide Press. https://www.adelaide.edu.au/press/titles/essays-gardam/
    • Heathcote, G. (2016). Fragmented feminisms: Critical feminist thinking in the post-millennium era. In A. Reinisch, M. Footer, & C. Binder (Eds.), International law and ... (Select proceedings of the European Society of International Law 2014). Hart Publishing.
    • Heathcote, G. (2016). Robust peacekeeping, gender and the protection of civilians. In H. Charlesworth & J. Farrell (Eds.), Strengthening the rule of law through the Security Council. Cambridge.
    • Heathcote, G. (2015). Feminist reflections on the prohibition on the use of force. In M. Weller (Ed.), Oxford handbook on the prohibition on the use of force. Oxford University Press.
    • Heathcote, G. (2014). Participation, gender, security. In G. Heathcote & D. Otto (Eds.), Rethinking peacekeeping, gender equality and collective security. Palgrave.

  • Journal Articles and Proceedings

    • Heathcote, G. (2025). Women, peace, and security: Posthuman feminisms and oceanic encounters. Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1017/hyp.2024.92
    • Sapiano, J., Jin, X., & Heathcote, G. (2024). Intersectionality and women’s participation in peace negotiations. International Affairs, 100(6). https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiae225
    • Heathcote, G., & Kula, L. (2024). The Force Intervention Brigade in the DRC, civilian security and women peace and security. Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies, 15(2), 246–265. https://doi.org/10.1163/18781527-bja10104
    • Heathcote, G. (2024). Embodied ecologies and legal wars: The use of force, Ukraine and feminist legal perspectives. Saint Louis University Law Journal, 68(2), Article 3. https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lj/vol68/iss2/3
    • Heathcote, G., & Kula, L. (2023). Abandoning the idealized white subject of legal feminism: A manifesto for silence in a Lusophone register. Global Constitutionalism, 12(3), 469–494. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045381722000284
    • Sapiano, J., Aggestam, K., Heathcote, G., & True, J. (2023). “I wouldn’t want to be a gender expert”: Gender experts in peace mediation. International Negotiation, 28(2), 201-228. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718069-bja10058
    • Heathcote, G. (2022). Filters and fragments: Making feminist sense of security. AJIL Unbound, 116, 254–258. https://doi.org/10.1017/aju.2022.40
    • Heathcote, G. (2021). Maritime demarcation in the Gulf after 2003. London Review of International Law, 9(2), 219–243. https://doi.org/10.1093/lril/lrab015
    • Heathcote, G. (2018). On feminist legal methodologies: Spilt, plural and speaking subjects. feminists@law, 8(2), Article 667. https://doi.org/10.22024/UniKent/03/fal.667
    • Heathcote, G. (2018). Security Council Resolution 2242 on women, peace and security: Progressive gains or dangerous development? Global Society, 32(4), 374–394. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600826.2018.1494140
    • Heathcote, G. (2018). War’s perpetuity: Disabled bodies of war and the exoskeleton of equality. Australian Feminist Law Journal, 44(1), 71–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/13200968.2018.1470447
    • Heathcote, G. (2017). Womenandchildren and elephants as justification for force. Journal on the Use of Force and International Law, 4(1), 66–85.

  • Conference Papers

    • ‘Gendering Ocean Governance’ ICLC, Latrobe University, 10th September 2026
    • ‘On Listening to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in the BBNJ’ - with Lloyd Pigram, ANZSIL Annual Conference, Wellington, New Zealand, 1st July 2026
    • 'Arboreal Jurisdiction' Spectres of Ruptured Time: Distemporalities and Their Afterlives Symposium, University of Stirling, 24th April, 2026
    • 'On listening to Indigenous People and Local Communities in the BBNJ Treaty' Durham University, March 2026
    • 'Gender Redux' Amsterdam Centre for International Law, November 2025
    • 'Feminist, Legal Plural' Lifeworlds of Ratna Kapur, SOAS University of London, November 2025
    • 'Gender Redux: International Legal Patterns and Repetitions', Pluriloguing with Ourselves: exploring non-dominant feminist grammars in global goverance, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, Cambridge University,
    • 'Of Blackbirds and Butterflies' Genocide and Oceans, University of Reading, September 2025
    • 'The Impossibility of Decolonial Law' Critical Legal Conference, Keynote, September 2025

  • Recorded or Rendered Works

    https://podtail.com/podcast/called-to-the-bar-international-law-over-drinks/15-queer-oceans-law/

  • Professional Affiliations

    Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences