The Attack on the World Trade Center: Legal Responses Terrorism is also Disrupting Some Crucial Legal Categories of International Law Antonio Cassese * Full text available: PDF format ** Discussion Forum 1. Introduction The terrorist attack of 11 September has had atrocious effects not only at the human, psychological and political level. It is also having shattering consequences for international law. It is subverting some important legal categories, thereby imposing the need to rethink them, on the one hand, and to lay emphasis on general principles, on the other. I shall not dwell on the use of the term `war' by the American President and the whole US administration. It is obvious that in this case `war' is a misnomer. War is an armed conflict between two or more States. Here we are confronted with an extremely serious terrorist attack by a non-State organization against a State. Admittedly, the use of the term `war' has a huge psychological impact on public opinion. It is intended to emphasize both that the attack is so serious that it can be equated in its evil effects with a State aggression, and also that the necessary response exacts reliance on all resources and energies, as if in a state of war. I shall rather discuss two other issues: the legal characterization of the terrorist attack from the viewpoint of international criminal law, and the question of what sort of forcible action international law permits the US to take, and against whom. * Member of the Board of editors ** The free viewer (Acrobat Reader) for PDF file is available at the Adobe Systems.
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