Sands on Chagos, Colonialism, Justice and Doing International Law

Philippe Sands’ The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain’s Colonial Legacy narrates Britain’s dealings with the Chagos archipelago from the 1960s to the present, weaving together British diplomacy, the inner workings of international institutions, and the legal and political struggles of the exile community. The story begins with the UK government’s decision to carve the islands of the Chagos archipelago out of Mauritius prior to Mauritius’ independence, forcibly deport the Chagos islanders, and offer one island (Diego Garcia) to the US for use as a military base. In the decades since, the British government has deployed both domestic and international law to resist the Chagossians’ claims to return. Only a long campaign by the Chagossians in UK courts, substantive shifts by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on questions of self-determination, and concerted diplomatic and legal efforts by Mauritius, supported by the African Union and other like-minded states in the UN, paved the way for a legal challenge before the ICJ. Sands, as counsel for Mauritius, gives a first-hand account of the proceedings which culminated in the Court’s 2019 advisory opinion. That opinion was unequivocal: Britain’s intervention in the 1960s meant Mauritius’ decolonization had not been lawfully completed, that the UK must end its unlawful occupation of a part of Africa, and that the deported Chagossians should be allowed to return.

This session will range over the areas covered by the book, and focus in on what the narrative reveals about the international legal order: How did the UK work within (or against) law to create and enable the separation of the archipelago in the first place, and sustain this for so long?  What legal strategies, and diplomatic manoeuvres, were required to open a path to the ICJ? How did the Chagossians’ claims for justice and redress have to be reframed or translated to appeal to the bench? What role was played by Liseby Elyse, the Chagossian who gave witness testimony at the ICJ? What comes next—for Liseby and the other islanders’ claims, for Mauritius, for the UK? And what does this narrative lay bare about race, justice and the ‘colonial legacy’ that remains?

The session will also touch on aspects of writing and international law – law as a means of telling stories – and Sands’ own journey from law student to teacher, practitioner and writer.

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