The Chagos Archipelago was appropriated from Mauritius by Britain in the 1960s and its inhabitants deported (with one suitcase each) to Mauritius and the UK in 1967-1973 to make way for the military air base on Diego Garcia. Those in the UK have been stateless ever since. (The Home Office has recently announced that it will begin processing citizenship applications in November this year.) Philippe Sands has been leading the repatriation case for the Chagossians and working on the Mauritian claim of sovereignty at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. His new book makes for compelling reading about the court’s role in global justice and British exceptionalism.