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Keynote Address

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2018

Philippe Sands QC
Philippe Sands QC*
Affiliation:
University College London; Barrister, Matrix Chambers.
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Extract

Few groups are likely to assemble today that would better know the shortcomings of international law than this group which I am privileged to address. You are aware of the confusions, of the incompleteness, of the lack of ordinary sanctions, and of all that might be said in criticism of international law. Yet here you are, assembled in Washington, at no little personal inconvenience, to reiterate your inveterate belief that international law is an existing and indestructible reality and offers the only hopeful foundation for an organized community of nations. There is no paradox in this. Those who best know the deficiencies of international law are those who also know the diversity and permanence of its accomplishments and its indispensability to a world that plans to live in peace. I am happy to join you in what amounts to a timely and resolute confession of faith.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the ASIL Annual Meeting , Volume 111 , 2017 , pp. 147 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © by The American Society of International Law 2018 

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Footnotes

The Assembly was convened at 4:45 p.m. on Thursday, April 13, 2017, and the Keynote Address was given by Phillipe Sands of University College London and Matrix Chambers.

References

1 Address by the Hon. Robert H. Jackson, 39 ASIL Proc. 10, 10–11 (1945)Google Scholar.

2 Philippe Sands, East West Street: On the Origins of Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide 184 (2016)Google Scholar.

3 Id.

4 Id. at 109–11.

5 Hersch Lauterpacht, An International Bill of the Rights of Man (2013).

6 Lauterpacht, Hersch, The Law of Nations, the Law of Nature and the Rights of Man, 29 Transactions of the Grotius Soc'y 1, 31 (1943)Google Scholar.

7 Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal, Art. 6, 82 UNTS 279.

8 Sands, supra note 2, at 113.

9 Id. at 165, 170.

10 Raphael Lemkin, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation—Analysis of Government—Proposals for Redress (1944).

11 Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 1, Indictment: Count Three (1947), available at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/count3.asp.

12 Sands, supra note 2, at 253–54.

13 Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 22, Judgment (1947), available at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/09-30-46.asp.

14 Sands, supra note 2, at 340.

15 Id. at 341.

16 Józef Wittlin & Philippe Sands, City of Lions (2016).

17 The Atlantic Charter, The Yearbook of the United Nations, available at http://www.unmultimedia.org/searchers/yearbook/page.jsp?volume=1946-47&bookpage=2.

18 Asa Bennet, How Theresa May Will Take Britain Out of the ECHR, Eventually, The Telegraph, Apr. 27, 2017, available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/27/theresa-may-will-take-britain-echr-eventually/.

19 Theresa May, Theresa May's Conference Speech in Full, The Telegraph, Oct. 5, 2016, at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/05/theresa-mays-conference-speech-in-full/.

20 HM Government, The United Kingdom's Exit from and New Partnership with the European Union (Feb. 2017), at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/589189/The_United_Kingdoms_exit_from_and_partnership_with_the_EU_Print.pdf.

21 Ginger Gibson, Trump Warns He Could End NATO Guarantee, Scrap NAFTA, Reuters (July 21, 2016), at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-nato-idUSKCN1010MC.

22 Charlotte Krol, Syria Strikes over “Beautiful Piece of Chocolate Cake”, The Telegraph, Apr. 13, 2017, available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/13/donald-trump-told-president-xi-syria-strikes-beautiful-piece/.

23 Anne-Marie Slaughter, The Strike on Syria Must Herald a New Trump Doctrine, Financial Times, Apr. 11, 2017, available at https://www.ft.com/content/441ee618-1de3-11e7-b7d3-163f5a7f229c?mhq5j=e3.

24 Rowena Mason, Ken Livingstone Repeats Claim About Nazi-Zionist Collaboration, The Guardian, Mar. 30, 2017, available at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/30/ken-livingstone-repeats-claim-nazi-zionist-collaboration.

25 Tim Ross, Boris Johnson: The EU Wants a Superstate, Just as Hitler Did, The Telegraph, May 15, 2016, available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/14/boris-johnson-the-eu-wants-a-superstate-just-as-hitler-did/.

26 Anushka Asthana & Ben Quinn, London Mayor Under Fire for Remark About ‘Part-Kenyan’ Barack Obama, The Guardian, Apr. 22, 2016, available at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/22/boris-johnson-barack-obama-kenyan-eu-referendum.