The Achievements and Limits of Global Counter-Terrorism Cooperation

This chapter investigates the importance of domestic law for international counter-terrorism cooperation. It highlights an important but often forgotten truism: that any response to terrorism requires action by State organs directed against activities of non-State actors, and these actors – most notably individuals – have rights under domestic law that national authorities cannot breach. National law therefore provides a substantial limit on any response to terrorism. This is true both of the conventional counter-terrorism system based on punitive measures, viz. criminalisation and assertion of jurisdiction, as well as of the post-2001 regime established by the United Nations (UN) Security Council, which is essentially preventive, focusing on the freezing of assets and the listing of suspects. This chapter therefore seeks to illustrate both the achievements and limits of international law by focusing on global counter-terrorism cooperation. The chapter is divided into three parts. The first part provides an overview of the origins of transnational criminal law enforcement and some of the historical limitations of the criminal regime, focusing especially on extradition. The following two parts focus specifically on counter-terrorism cooperation before and after 2001, highlighting the incremental improvement in the protection of individual rights and the limits of transnational criminal law enforcement.