Chapter

Detention and interrogation abroad : the 'extraordinary rendition' programme

Helen Duffy

The practice of shared responsibility in international law

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2017

p. 89-127

English

The focus of the chapter is extraterritorial detention and interrogation, and specifically the practice of 'extraordinary rendition'. While not a legal term of art, rendition is broadly recognized as involving the state-sponsored abduction from one state, with or without the cooperation of the government of that state, and the extra-judicial transfer to another state for detention and abusive interrogation outside the normal legal system. The 'war on terror' saw a multifaceted 'extraordinary rendition programme' (ERP) operated by the Central Agency System (CIA), designed and authorised at the highest levels of the United States Bush administration, and made possible by the participation of a global network of support from many other states and non-state actors. The unusual characteristics of the ERP make it a rich scenario to analyse shared responsibility. In addition to the responsability of the United States for acts of its intelligence agents abroad, other states have house CIA-operated 'black sites', assisted in abductions and transfers, or provided intelligence cooperation in various guises to the ERP. The chapter provides a factual overview of the ERP and explores the multiple breaches of international law, by multiple states, involved in the ERP.

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• The practice of shared responsibility in international law / ed. by André Nollkaemper and Ilias Plakokefalos ; assistant ed: Jessica N.M. Schechinger ; co-ed. by Jann Kleffner