Philippe Sands, QC, Professor of Law and Director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals at University College London and an international human rights lawyer, will speak about his recently published and acclaimed book, EAST WEST STREET: On the Origins of the “Genocide” and “Crimes Against Humanity” (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016). It tells of how two men, Hersch Lauterpacht and Raphael Lemkin, born within three years of each other in eastern reaches of Austrian Poland, and both students of the University of Lvov (Lemberg), independently of each other proposed different legal remedies to the scourge of mass killing. Lauterpacht, who believed that the protection of the individual stood at the center of any legal system, formulated the concept of “crimes against humanity,” while Lemkin, a firm believer that minority groups required protection, devised the concept of genocide.

A member of London’s Matrix Chambers, a practice focusing on criminal law, constitutional law and human rights, with an international perspective, Sands has appeared as counsel and advocate before many international courts and tribunals, including the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of Sea, the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court.