8 - The Outlook for International Counterterrorism Law

Summary

The Outlook chapter presents the achievements and challenges of what we can now call international counterterrorism law. Outside the context of armed conflict, sectoral treaties govern international terrorism involving a range of tactics and targets, notably hostage-taking, bombings, hijackings, and nuclear terrorism as well as attacks on foreign diplomats and, under a treaty approaching universality, the financing of international terrorism. But the distinction with terrorism in a situation of armed conflict in these treaties should have been drawn far more sharply. Under international humanitarian law, the definitions of terrorism in armed conflict are clear.