Monday, November 20, 2006

Terrorism and International Law

Lots of people are suggesting the War on Terror violates "International Law".

Now I am not a lawyer so I can't comment on the legalities involved, but terrorism expert John Thompson of the Mackenzie Institute recently weighed in on this issue.

In his group's latest newsletter, he says much of international law derives from the efforts of nations to deal with the problems of pirates --- who were much like the terrorists of today.

Indeed the Romans dubbed pirates, Hostis Humani Generis – enemies of all mankind, which also fits terrorists of today.

And 18th Century legalist, Sir William Blackstone, wrote it was the duty of all governments to suppress piracy.

Anyway, here's John's final analysis of how legally we should treat terrorists:

Find them, eliminate them; find their bankrollers, bankrupt them; find their sponsors and punish them. Governments which are not part of the solution, are therefore part of the problem and deserve what they get.

Sounds good to me.

5 comments:

Monkey Loves to Fight said...

I think war on terrorism is a grey area in international law since international law does allow for military action in legitimate self-defence but traditionally this has been by a state action not a non-state actor. This is something probably worth clearing up possibly even amending the UN Charter so it is clear what is acceptable and what isn't.

Anonymous said...

Miles,

Good luck changing the UN charter.
Not in my life time will that happen.

Following your logic then, perhaps
NATO, CANADA etc should disspence with a formal military and create
'Western mercenaries" that could just go and blow up whoever stands against
Western civilization.

KW

Anonymous said...

Miles ??

You unrepentant liberal. You actually
think the liberals did a better job than the current CPC's,

LPC are a corrupt party, period. They are heading left faster than I can type. In fact I predict a Rea victory
followed by a massive show of support from the UAW and other radical unions

KW

Monkey Loves to Fight said...

Good luck changing the UN charter.
Not in my life time will that happen.


probably right, but you are better to try and fail than not try at all.

Following your logic then, perhaps
NATO, CANADA etc should disspence with a formal military and create
'Western mercenaries" that could just go and blow up whoever stands against
Western civilization.


That is the reason I support UN Reform since I don't want one country or a group of like minded countries going around the world imposing their will.

You unrepentant liberal. You actually
think the liberals did a better job than the current CPC's,


You better believe I do and even many non-partisans feel the same way. Stephen Harper's approval rating is falling like a stone.

LPC are a corrupt party, period. They are heading left faster than I can type. In fact I predict a Rea victory
followed by a massive show of support from the UAW and other radical unions


As for a corrupt party, give it a rest. All parties have corruption. It is not as though the Tories haven't been dishonest at times. As for moving to the left, I am not sure Rae will win and considering the Liberals are about winning elections, they won't drift too far from the centre since that is where most votes are.

Anonymous said...

Look, This current Liberal regime is very corrupt. I would not get my name to closely associated with them.

Secondly, I follow my own set of value and do not hide behind the lame
"You better believe I do and even many non-partisans feel the same way."