Philippe Sands

Academic and barrister Philippe Sands joins Conor Gearty to discuss his life and career.

Philippe Sands is Professor of the Public Understanding 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, Rwanda, Iraq and Guantanamo. Sands is also an author, writes regularly for the press and serves as a commentator for the BBC, CNN and other radio and television producers. His books include Torture Team (2008), East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity (2016) – which was named the winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction in 2016, and The Ratline: Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive (2020).

Speaker: Professor Philippe Sands, Professor of the Public Understanding of Law, UCL; Barrister, Matrix Chambers; Author; President, English PEN; Jury Member, The British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding

Chair: Professor Conor Gearty FBA, Vice-President (Social Sciences), The British Academy; Professor of Human Rights Law, London School of Economics

SHAPE (Social sciences, humanities & the arts for people and the economy) is a new collective name for those subjects that help us understand ourselves, others and the human world around us.