site.btaWriter Philippe Sands to Visit Sofia for Lecture and Public Discussion

Professor Philippe Sands will deliver a lecture in Sofia titled "Is International Law  Still Our Shared System of Values?", Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski said on Sunday. The event, organized jointly with the French Institute, will take place on April 2.

Sands will address topics such as the Second World War as a turning point in the development of international law and the "revolution" of Nuremberg, the emergence and evolution of the concept of genocide, the rise of "ecocide" as a potential international crime, and the tension and fragile balance between justice, politics and power in the modern world.

On April 1, Sands will take part in a public discussion with Agnes Desarthe, whose novels and essays explore themes of kinship, transmission, memory and identity. She is also known as a leading French translator of the works of Philip Roth. "As a committed lawyer in defence of international law and author of major works on European memory and international law, Philippe Sands will engage in dialogue with Agnes Desarthe, whose literary work, with rare sensitivity, explores the territories of language, exile and the transmission of memory," the organizers said.

Writer Philippe Sands to Visit Sofia for Lecture and Public Discussion

According to them, the event will offer a dialogue between law, literature and memory, how to narrate violence in history, how to convey what is lost, and what words can still achieve.

Philippe Sands was born on October 17, 1960. He is one of the leading contemporary specialists in international law, combining academic work with practice as a barrister before the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. He is the author of numerous widely read works on key issues in international law.

He teaches at University College London and has held academic positions at King's College London (1988-1993). From 1993 to 2003, he was a professor of law at New York University School of Law. He has also been a visiting professor at Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne, the University of Melbourne, Indiana University Bloomington, the University of Toronto, Boston College Law School and the University of Lviv.

A significant part of his work is devoted to books that make complex legal topics accessible to a broad audience. Among his best-known works is East West Street (2016), which explores the origins of the concepts of genocide and crimes against humanity and has received awards including the Baillie Gifford Prize. Other books include Lawless World (2005), on the role of international law in global politics, and Torture Team (2008), on the legal aspects of the war on terror. His later works, such as The Ratline (2020) and The Last Colony (2022), continue to examine the links between history, law and morality.