ABSTRACT
Since the attacks of September 11, the US has pursued a dual approach to preventing and punishing transnational terrorism – expanding the reach of the ordinary criminal justice system for all terrorism offences, 1 and enacting a range of extraordinary authorities that authorise the military detention and trial of individuals affiliated with the groups directly responsible for the September 11 attacks, namely, Al Qa’ida, the Taliban, and their associated forces. 2 Whereas these different paradigms implicate fundamentally different legal regimes under US law, recent years have witnessed a distinct blurring of the lines between them, as the US government has sought to utilise the advantages both regimes provide in individual cases. 3 Nevertheless, there remains today a meaningfully distinct set of legal rules governing detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects within the criminal and military regimes.
