Since the appalling attacks of September 11, 2001 we have been immersed in what is generally known as the “war against terrorism”, the socalled “first war of the 21st Century” whose main victim may well be the international order itself, the basic principles of co-existence which have governed international relations over recent decades. Some of the measures adopted by the United States Administration in the “war on terror” can undoubtedly be described as an attack on many international obligations. The use of force outside the legal framework of the United Nations Charter; the refusal to apply the Geneva Conventions to prisoners suspected of terrorist offences; the transfer of prisoners with no criminal procedure guarantees; the existence of secret prisons; the so-called Legal Black Hole at Guantánamo; the use of torture in interrogations despite the absolute prohibition in international conventions. In the words of Professor Sands, the fight against terrorism appears to have become a horrifying opportunity to develop the AntiInternational Law Project
