Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values (2008) East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity (2016) Philippe Joseph Sands, KC FRSL Hon FBA (born 17 October 1960) is a British and French writer and lawyer at 11 King's Bench Walk[2] and Professor of Laws and Director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals at University College London.

After completing his postgraduate studies at Cambridge, Sands spent a year as a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School.

The book addresses a range of topics including the Pinochet trial in London, the creation of the International Criminal Court, the War on Terror and the establishment of the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay.

As a result of his work on Torture Team, Sands was invited to give oral and written evidence to the UK and Dutch Parliaments, as well as to the US House of Representatives and the US Senate: In 2009, Jane Mayer reported in The New Yorker on Sands' reaction to news that Spanish jurist Baltazar Garzon had received motions requesting that six former Bush officials might be charged with war crimes.

[28] Sands and Baroness Kennedy disagreed with the majority, and their dissent ("In Defence of Rights") was published in the London Review of Books.

[33] On 16 April 2018, Sands co-authored a piece in The Times in which it is argued that the UK had no established legal basis for the 2018 missile strikes against Syria.

[34] In November 2020, a panel of international lawyers chaired by Sands and Florence Mumba started drafting a proposed law criminalising ecocide, the destruction of ecosystems.

[36] In February 2024, Sands argued in favour of the State of Palestine at the International Court of Justice's case on Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.

[38] Sands refuted the US and the UK claims that an advisory opinion from the ICJ would negatively impact future negotiations.

[41] Sands frequently comments on issues of international law and is a contributor to BBC programmes, Sky News, CNN, Al Jazeera and national radio and TV stations around the world.

[42] His written work has formed the basis for four staged productions exploring the public and historical impact of international law: Sands' book East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity (2016) has been translated into twenty languages.

"[64] As summarised by The Observer: "The Chagossians were forced from their archipelago in the Indian Ocean in the 1970s, and Britain still refuses to hand it back.

Human rights lawyer Philippe Sands relates the wider tragedy of the scandal with nerve and precision.

"[65] In May 2024, Sands joined the pianist Emanuel Ax, who was born in Lviv, for a performance at the Philharmonie de Paris entitled 'Justice, words, music: five moments'.