ABSTRACT
After the final defeat of the absolute monarchy in 1688 and up until the nineteenth century, martial law was regarded as an emergency suspension of the rule of law, strictly confined to cases of necessity in times of war, not in times of peace when ordinary courts were open. In the name of defending the state, governments or official security agencies may engage in unlawful surveillance, wars of aggression, military interventions, coups, assassinations, renditions and torture. Courts have dismissed legal actions on various grounds, including 'state secret' doctrines invoked by the government accused of being responsible. In 2012, the High Court in London rejected a request for a judicial review of a decision by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to pass intelligence information from the United Kingdom's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) to aid drone strikes by the United States in Pakistan's northwest region.
