On 20 January 2021, Dr. Viviane Dittrich joined Professor Philippe Sands to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nuremberg trials at a Sciences Po Paris seminar. Dr. Dittrich, Deputy Director of the Nuremberg Academy, focused her presentation on the significance, then and now, of the Nuremberg trials and the Nuremberg Principles for modern international criminal law. In his lecture, Professor Philippe Sands, British-French human rights lawyer, Professor of Law at University College London and author, explained the origins of the concepts of genocide and crimes against humanity and highlighted the role of several protagonists including Hersch Lauterpacht and Raphael Lemkin, drawing especially on his award-winning book East West Street.
Professor Astrid von Busekist, who is Professor of Political Science at Sciences Po and officially translated Sand's book East West Street into French, gave an expert introduction to the topic and moderated the discussion. Elsa Grimberg, Deputy Director of the Sciences Po campus in Nancy, initiated the event and welcomed all participants. The audience comprised more than 450 participants from all seven campuses of Sciences Po. The Q&A session of the online seminar focused, inter alia, on the concepts of genocide and crimes against humanity, the emerging discussion on a potential new international crime of ecocide, and the legitimacy of international criminal courts and tribunals.