Introduction
The attacks of 11 September 2001 demonstrated the capacity of small groups to inflict civilian casualties on a scale previously known only in wartime. Since 9/11 and the resulting so-called “war on terror”, jurists have grappled with the implications of modem terrorism for conventional understandings of war and defence.For example, while the International Court ofJustice has held that self-defence under the United Nations Charter2 cannot be invoked by a State in response to an attack by nonState actors, 3 this remains highly contested in international law. 4 Similarly, there is considerable debate about the minimum threshold for belligerency in international humanitarian law and whether terrorists are combatants under the laws of war. Read More
