Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The paper makes the following main points:
• International norms of behavior are not what drive US security policy, so we need to wonder what it means to ask whether the law is too restrictive or unrestrictive enough to accommodate said policy.
• It may no longer make sense to charge the United States with “operating outside the law” and instead (and sadly) consider that international rules as they stand are operating outside a developing new security framework that is unfriendly to existing laws.
• A finer balance must be struck between the letter and spirit of human rights law and the stated goals and needs of US security strategy; new, creative synergies are needed to do this.
• Once we agree that powerful states, with the United States in the lead, are not likely to ease up on “fighting terrorism mercilessly,” it becomes important to consider what leverage a reconceptualized body of law can have in tempering the use and abuse of state power.