East West Street. On The Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity

A conference with Philippe Sands, Professor of Law at University College London, Practicing Barrister at Matrix Chambers, author of “East West Street. On The Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity”.

Under the supervision of Emmanuelle Tourme Jouannet (Sciences Po Law School), in association with Astrid von Busekist, Ariel Colonomos et Amélie Ferey (International politics and philosophy).

 

Also with :
– Geneviève Burdeau, Université Paris 1
– Ruti Teitel, New York University
– Emmanuelle Tourme Jouannet, Sciences Po Law School

Philippe Sands is Professor of Law at University College London and a practicing 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 (on the Iraq war), and Torture Team (on the embrace of torture by the Bush Administration).

“East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity“ weaves together historical, legal and familial narratives to reveal the origins of international law, beginning and ending with the last day of the Nuremberg trial.

“As a litigator you are a storyteller. East West Street is really a double detective story. It’s a search to unlock a family secret: the circumstances in which my grandfather and my grandmother, along with my mother, left Vienna in the course of the years that followed.

And then it’s a detective story about the origins of crimes against humanity and genocide: two subjects that occupy my life as an academic but also as a practising lawyer doing cases in international courts”, commented Philippe Sands in an interview given for the awards ceremony.

 

Philippe Sands has been named the winner of The £30,000 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction for East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

 

Translation Albin Michel, A. von Busekist. 2017, forthcoming.