Philippe Sands QC is Professor of Laws and Director of the Centre for International Courts and Tribunals at University College London. His publications include From Nuremberg to The Hague (CUP, 2003), Bowett's Law of International Institutions (Sweet & Maxwell, 2001), Butterworths Manual of International Courts and Tribunals (1999) and Principles of International Environmental Law (2003, 2nd edition). In 1997 he co-founded the Project on International Courts and Tribunals (www.pict-pcti.org), which he continues to co-direct. He is a barrister at Matrix Chambers, practicing in public international law. He appears regularly before English and international courts (including ECJ, ICJ, ITLOS, ICSID).
In the field of international criminal law his cases include ex parte Augusto Pinochet (House of Lords, counsel for Human Rights Watch) and Croatia v. Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (ICJ, counsel for Croatia), and he served as an adviser to the delegation of Samoa in the negotiations of the Statute of the International Criminal Court (Rome, 1998). In October 2003 he was appointed as amicus curiae by the Appeals Chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone to make submissions on Head of State immunity under international law (Prosecutor v Charles Taylor).