The Status of the Prohibition of Terrorism in International Law: Recent Development
![handle is hein.journals/geojintl46 and id is 608 raw text is: THE STATUS OF THE PROHIBITION OF
TERRORISM IN INTERNATIONAL LAW:
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
THOMAS WEATHERALL*
ABSTRACT
This Note examines and assesses recent developments in the jurisprudence of
the prohibition of terrorism in international law. Although the lack of consensus
on a definition has long inhibited the emergence of a comprehensive universal
norm in international law, key decisions by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon
(STL) in 2011, the French Court of Cassation that same year, and the England
Court of Appeal (invoking the STL judgment in 2012) indicate the crystalliza-
tion of an international crime of terrorism in customay international law. From
this baseline, this Note considers whether the prohibition against terrorism
satisfies the elements of a norm belonging tojus cogens as per the formal source
of peremptoy norms delineated in the Vienna Convention on the Law of
Treaties. Finding that it does, this Note then assesses the legal effects ofjus
cogens arising from the prohibition against terrorism as evidence corroborating
the emergence of a peremptoy norm.
I. INTRODUCTION .................................... 590
II. DEFINITIONS OF TERRORISM IN INTERNATIONAL LAW ........... 591
A. The Domestic Crime of International Terrorism .......... 592
B. The War Crime of Terrorism ....................... 593
C. The International Crime of Terrorism ................. 595
III. U.S. JURISPRUDENCE AND THE PROBLEM OF UNCERTAINTY ...... 597
A. TheD.C. Circuit ............................... 597
B. The Second Circuit .............................. 599
IV. TowARD AN INTERNATIONAL CRIME UNDER CUSTOMARY
INTERNATIONAL LAw ................................ 600
A. Interlocutory Decision on the Applicable Law [ STL 2011] .. 601
B. Regina v. Gul [England Court of Appeal 2012] ......... 605
C. Runion A>rienne v. Libya [France Court of Cassation
2011] ...................................... 609
V. A METHODOLOGY OFJUS COGENS ....................... 611
* Ph.D., Cantab; M.Sc., Oxon;J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, expected May 2015.
The author expresses his gratitude to Michel Paradis for his insightful comments on an earlier
draft of this Note. The views expressed herein are the author's own and not necessarily those of
the U.S. Department of State or the U.S. Government. © 2014, Thomas Weatherall.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/geojintl46&div=23&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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The Status of the Prohibition of Terrorism in International Law: Recent Development
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