Detention in the 'War on Terror'
Can Human Rights Fight Back?

This book explores the US and UK's panic-related counter-terrorist detention policies and assesses human rights law's resilience to such panic.

Fiona de Londras (Author)

9781107538153, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 2 July 2015

328 pages
22.9 x 15.1 x 1.7 cm, 0.6 kg

'Detention in the 'War on Terror' is an illuminating discussion of not only the subject of detention, but the influences and effects on international law as a whole … the research and depth of analysis is extensive and meticulous, the writing is clear and fluid and the main argument is a principled account of the continuing story of the resilience of international law during a period of crisis.' Troy Lavers, Irish Jurist

In this book, Fiona de Londras presents an overview of counter-terrorist detention in the US and the UK and the attempts by both states to achieve a downward recalibration of international human rights standards as they apply in an emergency. Arguing that the design and implementation of this policy has been greatly influenced by both popular and manufactured panic, Detention in the 'War on Terror' addresses counter-terrorist detention through an original analytic framework. In contrast to domestic law in the US and UK, de Londras argues that international human rights law has generally resisted the challenge to the right to be free from arbitrary detention, largely because of its relative insulation from counter-terrorist panic. She argues that this resilience gradually emboldened superior courts in the US and UK to resist repressive detention laws and policies and insist upon greater rights-protection for suspected terrorists.

Introduction
1. Panic, fear and counter-terrorist law-making
2. The right to be free from arbitrary detention
3. Counter-terrorist detention: the executive approach
4. Legislating for counter-terrorist detention
5. International human rights law's resilience in the face of panic
6. Judicial responses to counter-terrorist detention: rights-based resistance?
7. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Public international law [LBB], Human rights [JPVH], International relations [JPS]