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The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain's Colonial Legacy (2022)
Philippe Joseph SandsKCFRSL (born 17 October 1960) is a British, French, and Mauritian[2] writer and lawyer at 11 King's Bench Walk[3] and Professor of Laws and Director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals at the Faculty of Laws, University College London.[4] Working in international law, he has appeared as counsel and advocate before international courts and tribunals.
Early life
Sands was born in London on 17 October 1960 to Jewish parents; his mother (née Buchholz)[1] was French.[5]
From 2010 to 2012, Sands served as a Commissioner on the UK Government Commission on a Bill of Human Rights.[citation needed] The commission's Report was published in December 2012.[10][citation needed]
Sands has expressed the view that a ruling by an international judicial body, such as the International Court of Justice, could help resolve the scientific dispute on climate change and be authoritative and legally dispositive.[11]
In November 2020, a panel of international lawyers chaired by Sands and Florence Mumba started drafting a proposed law criminalising ecocide, the destruction of ecosystems.[12] The law could be in force within five years, he told the Financial Times in July 2021.[13]
U.S. & U.K. Foreign Policy
In 2006, in a new edition of Lawless World, Sands revealed that the then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair had told President George W. Bush that he would support US plans to invade Iraq before he had sought legal advice about the invasion's legality. The book writes of a memorandum dated 31 January 2003 that described a two-hour meeting between Blair and Bush, during which Bush discussed the possibility of luring Saddam Hussein's forces to shoot down a Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, an act that would cause Iraq to be in breach of UN Security Council Resolutions.[14]
In 2009, Jane Mayer reported in The New Yorker on Sands' reaction to news that Spanish jurist Baltazar Garzon had received motions requesting that six former Bush officials might be charged with war crimes.[15]
Sands attended a reading of Torture Team at the Long Wharf Theatre in 2011, described as Sands' "account of the U.S. sanctioning of torture".[16]
U.K. Arms Sales
In December 2015, Sands and two colleagues at Matrix Chambers drafted a Legal Opinion on the legality of UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia for Amnesty International, Oxfam and Saferworld. The Opinion concluded that by authorising the transfer of weapons to Saudi Arabia, the UK government was acting in breach of its obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty, the EU Common Position on Arms Exports and the UK's Consolidated Criteria on Arms Exports.[17]
Israel Palestine
In February 2024, Sands argued in favour of the State of Palestine at the International Court of Justice's case on Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. He said that "Palestinian statehood is not dependent on the approval of Israel" and that international law of self-determination required other "UN Member States [to] bring Israel’s occupation to an immediate end. No aid. No assistance. No complicity. No contribution to forcible actions. No money, no arms, no trade, no nothing."[18] He also claimed that the State of Israel "has arrogated to itself the right to decide who owns Palestinian land, who may live on it, and how it must be used" and its support for 700,000 settlers living illegally in the occupied Palestinian territory as "demographic manipulation of the highest order".[19] Sands refuted the US and the UK claims that an advisory opinion from the ICJ would negatively impact future negotiations.[19]
British Indian Ocean Territory; Chagos Archipelago
In a book review of Sands book, The Last Colony, in The Guardian, Tim Adams wrote that "The Chagossians were forced from their archipelago in the Indian Ocean in the 1970s, and Britain still refuses to hand it back. Human rights lawyer Philippe Sands relates the wider tragedy of the scandal with nerve and precision."[20]
In a October 2024 piece in the Spectator, Sands was mentioned to be "Mauritius’ chief legal adviser – and a longtime campaigner for the country to control the land."[21] In another piece, Micheal Gove, notes that Sands is open about his support for Mauritius, but less open about "when he planted a Mauritian flag on UK territory– the tweet celebrating the annexation has been deleted."[22]
Personal life
Sands lives in a "charming, blue-plaqued Hampstead townhouse" in North London with his wife and three children.[5][23]
In a 2016 interview for The Guardian, he asserted: "I want to be treated as Philippe Sands individual, not Philippe Sands Brit, Londoner or Jew."[24]
Sands has stated that he is “a great friend” of UK prime minister, Kier Starmer.[25][23]
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