By: James G. Apple, Editor-in-Chief, International
Judicial Monitor
English barristers have the well-deserved reputation of
being among the best advocates in the world. Many of them attend Oxford or
Cambridge Universities and participate in the debating activities of the Oxford
Union or the Cambridge Union. There they develop oratorical and advocacy
skills which serve them well and often when they are called to the bar at one
of the London Inns of Court: Middle Temple, Inner Temple, Lincoln’s Inn, Gray’s
Inn.
One of the ablest barristers now arguing cases in courts,
domestic and international, as well as carrying on a career as writer, law
professor and arbitrator, is Philippe Sands QC. He is one of a small group of
legal practitioners who would always be included in great lawyers of the world.
His contributions to the cause of international law have been enormous.
Philippe Sands was born in London in October, 1960. He
followed a traditional prospective barrister’s path, as described above,
studying law at Cambridge as an undergraduate and post graduate student,
receiving a B.A. degree in 1982 and a Master of Laws degree, First Class Honors,
the next year. He spent an additional year as a research fellow at Harvard Law
School. He has also held positions as a research fellow at St. Catherine’s
College, Cambridge, and what is now the Lauterpacht Center for International
Law (formerly Cambridge University Centre for International Law). He is a founding
member (2000) of Matrix Chambers, with offices in London and Geneva, became
Queen’s Counsel (took silk) in 2002, and was elected as a “Bencher” of the
Middle Temple in 2009.
Along the way in such a distinguished practitioner’s career,
he held several academic appointments, at King’s College, London; SOAS (School
of Asian Studies) University of London; New York University Law School; the
Sorbonne; University of Melbourne; Graduate School of International Development
Studies, Indiana University; University of Toronto; Boston College Law School
and Lviv University (Poland).
Sands’ primary practice is devoted to international law and
international cases; he appears frequently before the International Court of
Justice (World Court) in The Hague. More recently he has been involved in
important international arbitration cases, both as counsel for one or more of
the parties, and as an arbitrator.
However it is as an author that Sands has made his most
notable contributions to international law, particular international human
rights law. He has authored, co-authored and co-edited seventeen books on
varying aspects of international law, fourteen of which are primarily academic
titles. Three non-academic books are worthy of mention here.
In 2005 Sands published Lawless World, which focused
on the legality of the 2003 Iraqi War (see In Review, International
Judicial Monitor, March 2006 by clicking on Archives at the top of the Home Page of the Monitor).
The full title of the book, Lawless World: America and the Breaking of
Global Rules from FDR’s Atlantic Charter to George W. Bush’s Illegal War,
gives the prospective reader some suggestion of the topics covered in the book
and the author’s views about them. In addition to
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Judicial Monitor