ABSTRACT
The attacks against the United States on 11 September 2001 gave new urgency to the call for political cooperation. With the fight against terrorism having been elevated to the highest priority and “terrorism” presented as a threat to all democracies, the discourses of democratic solidarity against terrorism and of national insecurity have become very clear (Guittet 2004, 2006; Tsoukala 2004). Furthermore, they have emerged as common discourses to invoke a “state of exception” and to suspend the rule of law, which may also include derogations of international commitments. It has been widely accepted among political actors that “necessity” knows no law and that individual rights to liberty are trumped by the collective right to security.
