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By The Basa ⋅ March 11, 2006 ⋅

EdinburghSucks.com reader, professor, barrister and leading international lawyer, Philippe Sands, has his latest book on sale which gives explosive analysis of how Britain and America have broken the legal global order by promoting America’s economic interests at the expense of human rights and environment. A coruscating account of how the Bush and Blair administrations are breaking the law and trying to rewrite the rules …After the Second World War America and Britain led the creation of a new law-based international order, outlawing war and its excesses, protecting human rights and promoting free trade. Why is the US now undermining so many of those very laws? Philippe Sands has been involved in high-profile cases including Guantanamo and Pinochet. In Lawless World he draws on disturbing material to show how America has reneged on agreements governing war, torture and the environment – with Britain often turning a blind eye or colluding in some of the worst violations.

In recent years America has abandoned the Kyoto Protocol and the Statute of the International Criminal Court, ignored human rights standards at Abu Ghraib and disregarded the UN’s prohibition of pre-emptive force. Are we on the verge of a new world order where the most powerful nations can put aside the rules that no longer suit them?Lawless World explains why we need global rules, examines why recent American and British actions endanger international justice, and asks, what does the future hold?

In the explosive Lawless World, Sands argues that recent American actions are undermining the global legal order established after WW2 and promoting its economic interests at the expense of human rights and the environment. Here he explains that his book is intended to challenge, inform and even outrage readers.

What motivated you to write on this subject?

A belief that important international rules are under threat and that the case for supporting them needs to be set out clearly and unambiguously.

A string of high profile international events – Pinochet, the International Criminal Court, trade disputes, 9/11, Iraq, Guantanamo – have put international law issues into the public spotlight. I am frequently asked to comment and explain, but only on individual issues, not the big picture. When my editor at Penguin invited me to write about the issues in the round, I saw it as a good opportunity to explain the issues more fully and in a way which could reach a broader audience than the infinitesimally small number who might read my academic work or hear arguments in a courtroom. I have been delighted by the response to the book’s publication. It confirms a strong and growing interest in international rules. Recent developments – including on torture, rendition and climate change – make it clear that compliance with international rules is an issue that resonates around the world.

What kind of experience do you want your reader to have?

I want the reader to be challenged, to think critically about the pros and cons of various international rules, how they are made, the implications of having them or nor having them, and what their abandonment might mean.I don’t necessarily want the reader to agree with me. But I hope that some – a decent number – will feel sufficiently outraged by some of the bad legal arguments put forward by the US and British governments in recent years and to try to do something about it.

Who has inspired you?

People who are willing to defend their principles, and who act with integrity, decency and professionalism to protect fundamental values.Lawyers like Elizabeth Wilmshurst – the UK Foreign Office legal adviser who resigned over the illegality of the Iraq war - who stick to principle and put their heads above the parapet. Judges who assert their independence in the face of intimidation and threats. Soldiers who do all in their power to follow the rules. People who suffer atrocity or personal tragedy and manage to retain a love of life.

Who has influenced your work?

Natalia Schiffrin, my wife. Best lawyer I know, constantly advising me not to do things I will later regret.
Ed Burke, economics teacher at my middle-class school in north London. He took our class down a coal-mine when we were 15 and opened our eyes to the way people work and live.Robbie Jennings and Phillip Allott. My first teacher of international law, and the first of my teachers of international law who made it clear that law, politics and the personal are inseparable.

Who has inspired you as a writer?

Writers, composers and lawyers who address complex ideas and emotions with simplicity and subtlety.
Writers like my friend Agnès Desarthe (Cinq Photos de Ma Femme). Songwriters like Souad Massi (Raoui) and Leonard Cohen (Ten New Songs). Lawyers like Chris Stone (Should Trees Have Standing?).

During the process of writing, what surprises did you discover?

That it is not easy to find a clear voice when your legal training has more or less extinguished that part of it which speaks to energy and passion.

That it is not so straightforward to write about complex legal issues in a way which is interesting for non-lawyers.

That I am a more conservative person than I might have had imagined.

The book can of course be purchased on Amazon by clicking here.