‘Terrorist Lists' and Procedural Human Rights

The designation of a person or an organization as ‘terrorist’ opens up a chasm in the rule of law, a space defined not by an absence of law, since there may well be a plethora of positive law, but by the absence of procedural rights. These are not only fundamental human rights in themselves, but crucially provide the best protection against torture and other forms of arbitrary state conduct. Drawing on my own previous work, this chapter engages with a number of issues arising from international and national responses to what is described as the ‘war on terror’. ¹ This chapter is therefore complementary to the chapter by Daniel Moeckli; my focus is on the issue of proscription and ‘terrorist lists’.