of the Centre for International Environmental Law (1989) and the Project on International Courts and Tribunals (1997). Legal career Sands was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1985. In 2000 he was a founding member of Matrix Chambers and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2003. Sands was elected a Bencher of Middle Temple in 2009. He joined 11 King's Bench Walk on 1 October 2022. Sands has acted as counsel and advocate in cases that span a wide range of subject areas, including: maritime boundary disputes (in the Caribbean, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans); claims relating to natural resources, pollution and environmental assessment; international trade disputes; issues relating to the immunity of serving and former heads of State from the jurisdiction of national and international courts; claims under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; claims relating to the use of force, allegations of torture, genocide, self-determination and other violations of human rights; claims relating to violations of international criminal law. Sands has acted as counsel in more than two dozen cases at the International Court of Justice, including the Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion (counsel for the Solomon Islands); the Georgia v. Russia dispute (counsel for Georgia); Whaling in the Antarctic (counsel for Australia); Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965; and Application of the Genocide Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (counsel for The Gambia). He has also been instructed in inter-State arbitrations, including the Chagos Marine Protected Area Arbitration (counsel for Mauritius) and the dispute between the Philippines and China over maritime jurisdiction in the South China Sea (counsel for the Philippines). Prior to accepting appointments as ICSID arbitrator (since 2007), Sands acted as counsel in ICSID and other investment cases (including Tradex, Waste Management and Vivendi). Sands now sits as arbitrator in investment disputes and in sports disputes (CAS). In 2005, Sands' book Lawless World catalysed legal and public debate in the UK on the legality of the 2003 Iraq War. 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. In the second edition of Lawless World (2006) Sands revealed that the then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair had told President George W. Bush that he