September 12th, 2026, in the Mirror Hall of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, a meeting with a world-renowned human rights activist, lawyer specialising in international law, and writer Philippe Sands took place. The academic community, especially students that read law, as well as representatives of the city government and people of Lviv joined him at this event.
At the beginning of the meeting, First Vice-rector of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Professor Andrii Gukaliuk appealed to those present, emphasising on the particular importance of such events for the student youth and shaping their professional outlook. “Education is not only knowledge, but the outlook as well. And today, the students have a unique possibility to broaden it thanks to this landmark meeting and, I hope, an interesting lecture. The topic we will be going over today is incredibly relevant, as the armed aggression of russia against Ukraine brings the legal science to the next level. And it is your role, young people, to further develop the law,” Andrii Gukaliuk stated.
Philippe Sands began his speech with words of support to Ukrainians and remembered his multi-year connection with Lviv, his first visit being there in 2010. Since then, the city became for him not only a place of professional interest, but a space for personal memory and family history, as the lawyer’s grandfather was born in Lviv. “I’ve been to Lviv many times and know this hall of Lviv University very well. I want to express my deepest solidarity with you in these increasingly complicated times. I try to come to Ukraine every year, even during the war. It might be not that much, but that is my contribution,” Philippe Sands noted.
Remembering his first time in Lviv, the lawyer said that it was then that he started to study the history of his own family, which is connected to the city, more in-depth. At the same time, a particular discovery for him was the story of two prominent lawyers, deeply intertwined with Lviv University – Raphael Lemkin and Hersch Lauterpacht. “When I found out that Raphael Lemkin and Hersch Lauterpacht, whose names are connected with the studying and implementation of notions of “genocide” and “crimes against humanity”, studied at the Faculty of Law of Lviv University, I was impressed. That means that here, in this place, people gave birth to ideas I have dedicated the majority of my life researching,” Philippe Sands emphasised.
This very research later became the foundation of his book East West Street, in which personal family history intertwined with the history of Lviv, becoming of international criminal law, and interpretation of crimes of the 20th century. Philippe Sands pointed out that, while working on the book, he could not have foreseen its subsequent international resonance.
A separate part of the speech Philippe Sands dedicated to russia’s war against Ukraine and the question of individual responsibility in times of great challenges. The lawyer confessed that he often thinks of his own role and what can anyone do in response to inequality and violence. “Even in the darkest and the most troubled times, we have to stay true to ourselves, our family, friends and continue the fight, even if sometimes it seems that it’s ineffective. Stay true to your principles and your values. This is probably the best way to make your own history”, Philippe Sands summed up.
After the lecture, everyone had the possibility to ask Philippe Sands a question, and thus, a range of topics concerning the perspectives of bringing russia to justice for war crimes and the evaluation of interests of international law. In particular, the participants asked the guest whether international law has to be effective under conditions of an armed aggression.
During his answer, Philippe Sands agreed with the remark that, while international legal mechanisms need time, people are dying now, and no future decisions can completely balance the scales after each casualty. At the same time, the lawyer voiced a belief that even a gradual shaping of international mechanisms matters since they give the victims in particular and the society in general the hope that the crimes will be documented and one day receive a fair legal evaluation.
The discussion involved the prospects of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, the experiences of the Nuremberg trials, and the necessity of upgrading the international law. Philippe Sands emphasised that russia’s war in Ukraine raised an especially thorny issue of new technologies of conducting warfare. The modern conflict, according to him, is no longer a war of tanks and planes; a much bigger role is played by the use of artificial intelligence in weaponry which poses new questions on the limits of responsibility for crimes against people, as dilemmas on who is responsible after a strike if the target was chosen by an algorithm, become relevant. These very questions do not have the concrete answers in the field of international law, and thus need significant development.
Another topic discussed by Philippe Sands was ecocide. He stated that nowadays, international criminal law singles out major international crimes that directly influence a person. At the same time, russia’s war against Ukraine demonstrates large-scale consequences for the environment. In the lawyer’s opinion, international law has to shift to recognising immense harm to nature as a separate international crime. He believes that the Ukrainian experience can become one of the factors of such changes and appealed to the students, saying that further development of international law will largely depend on their generation.
At the end of the meeting, Philippe Sands received commemorative gifts from the academic community – a T-shirt with Lviv University logo and a publication on its history, and after this, the audience could get an autograph from the honourable guest and talk to him in an informal setting.
During his time at the University, Philippe Sands visited the building of the Faculty of Law, where he talked to the teachers, fondly remembering the Distinguished Professor of Lviv University Petro Rabinovich.
