Philippe Sands

Philippe Sands is Professor of Law at the University College London and co-chair of the expert drafting panel on the legal definition of “ecocide”. He is also the author of ‘East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity’ (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2016).
Picture (c) Antonio Olmos

Symposium
Interview
International Law and the Political

From East West Street to the Anthropocene: Philippe Sands in conversation with Hendrik Simon

Philippe Sands Hendrik Simon

On the occasion of Philippe Sands receiving the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade on 11 October 2026, Hendrik Simon spoke with him about international law as a modicum...

Media

Livestream: Ecocide – Legal Revolution or Symbolism?

Jan-Phillip Graf Romina Pezzot Philippe Sands Paola Gaeta Kai Ambos Jorge E. Viñuales

In June 2021 the first legal definition of the international crime of ‘ecocide’ was proposed by an Independent Expert Panel. Join leading international experts in the discussion about its potential...

Interview

Defining Ecocide

Philippe Sands Justine Batura Philipp Eschenhagen Raphael Oidtmann

The initiative StopEcocide aims to amend the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) by incorporating a fifth international crime: 'Ecocide'. To that end, it recently commissioned an independent expert drafting panel to draft a...

Book Review
Symposium
Crimes Against Humanity

A matter of evolution, not invention

On the morning of Sunday July 29th 1945, Robert Jackson, recently named as Chief Prosecutor of the International Military Tribunal to be established in Nuremberg, was driven from his hotel...