Chapter

The relevance of international humanitarian law in national case law on terrorism

Antonino Alì

War crimes and the conduct of hostilities : challenges to adjudication and investigation

Cheltenham ; Northampton : E. Elgar, 2013

p. 293-310

English

This article examines acts of terrorism and war crimes, with a view to the application of international humanitarian law (IHL). In doing so, the author reviews jurisprudence that, he suggests, highlights some of the problematic aspects of the endeavour to apply IHL to terrorism. The author outlines various perspectives on the intersection of war crimes and terrorism, including the practice of how some tribunals classify terror as a war crime under customary international law. The author also expands on the difficulties in defining terrorism in domestic judicial decisions. The article also distinguishes between freedom fighters and terrorists and invokes relevant case law to evaluate how these classifications fit into the international legal regime. Additionally, the article examines the treatment of prisoners of war in the context of the “War on Terror” by analyzing several US Supreme Court cases. The author argues that the case law tends to involve a selective and confused application of IHL, largely because the US Supreme Court has never clarified whether the ‘War on Terror’ constitutes an armed conflict. [Summary by students at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law (IHRP)]

• War crimes and the conduct of hostilities : challenges to adjudication and investigation / ed. by Fausto Pocar, Marco Pedrazzi, Micaela Frulli