LCIL Book Launch: 'Genocide vs Crimes Against Humanity: A Conversation with Philippe Sands'
Duration: 1 hour 9 mins
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| Description: | Philippe Sands, Professor of Law at University College London, came to the Lauterpacht Centre on Wednesday 2 November 2016, to discuss some of the issues arising from his latest book, 'East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2016). The conversation was led by Dr Sarah Nouwen (LCIL Deputy Director) and Dr Franziska Exeler (Faculty of History, University of Cambridge), and was followed by questions from the floor. |
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| Created: | 2016-11-21 13:34 |
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| Collection: | LCIL International Law Seminar Series MOVED |
| Publisher: | University of Cambridge |
| Copyright: | University of Cambridge |
| Language: | eng (English) |
| Keywords: | International Law; Genocide; Crimes Against Humanity; International Criminal Law; History of International Law; |
| Abstract: | About 'East West Street': When Philippe Sands received an invitation to deliver a lecture in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, he began to uncover a series of extraordinary historical coincidences. It set him on a quest that would take him halfway around the world in an exploration of the origins of international law and the pursuit of his own secret family history, beginning and ending with the last day of the Nuremberg Trials. Part historical detective story, part family history, part legal thriller, Philippe Sands guides us between past and present as several interconnected stories unfold in parallel. The first is the hidden story of two Nuremberg prosecutors, Hersch Lauterpacht and Rafael Lemkin, whose efforts led to the inclusion of the terms ‘crimes against humanity’ and ‘genocide’ in the judgement at Nuremberg. A second strand traces the events that overwhelmed Sands' mother’s family in Lviv and Vienna during the Second World War, and led his grandfather to leave his wife and daughter behind as war came to Europe. At the heart of this book is an equally personal quest to understand the roots of international law and the concepts that have dominated Sands’s work as a lawyer.
Philippe Sands QC is Professor of Law at University College London and a practising barrister at Matrix Chambers. He frequently appears before international courts, including the International Criminal Court and the World Court in The Hague, and has been involved in many of the most important cases of recent years, including Pinochet, Congo, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Iraq and Guantanamo. His previous books include Lawless World (Penguin, 2005), on the illegality of the Iraq war, and Torture Team (Penguin, 2008), on the embrace of torture by the Bush Administration. He is the author of Bowett’s Law of International Institutions (6th edition, 2009) and an editor of the Manual of International Courts and Tribunals (2nd edition, 2012), amongst other academic works. He is a contributor to the Financial Times, Guardian, New York Review of Books and Vanity Fair. He makes regular appearances on radio and television, and serves on the boards of English PEN and the Hay Festival. |
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