Lawless World
Philippe Sands


Allen Lane (Penguin), £12.99

Many of us probably have rather shaky notions of what international law is and how it affects us. It may be something vaguely remembered from university days as a dimly perceived world of diplomatic exchanges, treaties and customary laws, all seemingly disconnected from our daily business. If so, this timely and topical book may help illuminate those darker recesses of your understanding.

This is one of those books that provides insights from an insider into an otherwise closed world. As a practising international lawyer, Philippe Sands participated in the 1992 Climate Change Convention negotiations on behalf of small island states threatened by rising sea levels. He was in on the negotiations to create the International Criminal Court. He has also been involved in some leading human rights cases, including Spain’s attempt to extradite Augusto Pinochet from the UK. Yet he still finds time to be Professor of Law at University College London.


The author’s thesis is disturbing, and well illustrated. After two world wars, international law emerged as a rules-based system aimed at creating a world order in which nations could demonstrate their commitment to shared values. The US and Britain were the main architects of this system, which helped establish the United Nations and has since resulted in a network of global agreements on trade, human rights and environmental protection.


However, now the US is busy disregarding those parts of it that do not sit with its other policy objectives. Or, in the reported succinct vernacular of George W Bush the day after 11 September 2001, ‘I don’t care what the international lawyer says; we are going to kick some ass’.



This is not new. During the Clinton administration, Mr Sands had been lecturing in the state of Virginia when a Paraguayan national was executed despite a suspension order of the International Court of Justice. The US Supreme Court, following arguments from the government, ruled that international rules could not impinge on federal authority. Yet the International Court’s order had been given under the same treaty that Jimmy Carter had invoked to secure the release of the Tehran hostages in 1979. Mr Sands provides many illustrations of such double standards.


The ‘global war on terrorism’ and the war in Iraq highlight the greatest shift in US attitudes towards long-standing international human rights norms, as well as Britain’s shameful complicity. The legal black hole in which the Guantanamo detainees find themselves is a shocking example of the US desire to create a legal regime by effectively binning the old rules and making new rules (unilaterally) on the hoof. Similarly, the trumped-up legal justification for going to war in Iraq shows how readily the law can be bent to fit policy objectives.


Yet this is neither a tub-thumping exercise in polemic à la Michael Moore, nor a dry academic treatise. It is a sober and compelling account of how international law has moved gradually from the wings to centre stage. Above all, in today’s uncertain world, it makes the case for unflinching adherence to international rules to safeguard minimum standards of acceptable behaviour.


Caught between terrorist threats on the one hand and illiberal government reactions on the other, we give in to either at our peril.


William Morrison-Bell is senior legal adviser at Air Products PLC