2 - The Law of Transnational Counter-Terrorism

Summary

The law of transnational counter-terrorism comes in various forms, encompassing hard-law instruments like Security Council resolutions, regulatory instruments like good practices or guidance, and managerial instruments like the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. Law is a critical instrument in the post-9/11 approach to developing, reorienting, and globalising a particular orientation towards counter-terrorism. This chapter outlines the dynamics of transnational counter-terrorism law, considering the Security Council’s ascendant position as a lawmaker in this field, the ways in which the regulatory activities of informal institutions are ‘hardened’ through Security Council engagement (thus identifying them as pseudo law-making entities), and how the approach adopted in the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy reinforces these practices. The chapter shows how, through the variety of its forms and addressees, the law of transnational counter-terrorism transports the logics of transnational counter-terrorism into everyday practices of administration, criminal justice, surveillance, all the while marginalising rights.