The Law of the List: UN Counterterrorism Sanctions and the Politics of Global Security Law (Global Law Series)

The spread of violent extremism, 9/11, the rise of ISIL and movement of 'foreign terrorist fighters' are dramatically expanding the powers of the UN Security Council to govern risky cross-border flows and threats by non-state actors. New security measures and data infrastructures are being built that threaten to erode human rights and transform the world order in far-reaching ways. The Law of the List is an interdisciplinary study of global security law in motion. It follows the ISIL and Al-Qaida sanctions list, created by the UN Security Council to counter global terrorism, to different sites around the world mapping its effects as an assemblage. Drawing on interviews with Council officials, diplomats, security experts, judges, secret diplomatic cables and the author's experiences as a lawyer representing listed people, The Law of the List shows how governing through the list is reconfiguring global security, international law and the powers of international organisations. "The United Nations (UN) was created after World War II as an intergovernmental organisation of states. The constituent instrument that created the UN and gave the Security Council its enforcement powers (the UN Charter) reflects this state-centred focus. The collective security provisions that empower the Council to determine threats to the peace and decide what enforcement action to take were aimed at preventing inter-state war.1 Economic sanctions were conceived as political measures for disciplining recalcitrant states deemed threats to international peace and security. They offered a means of intervention 'between words and war'2 for the Council to 'deter individual states from taking matters into their own hands'.3 Because they are imposed under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, sanctions must be implemented by all states. This extraordinary power was to be limited to specific and concrete threats.4 When threats receded, the sanctions would be withdrawn"-- Provided by publisher This book is a study of global security law in motion, and is the first detailed socio-legal analysis of the UN Security Council's counterterrorism listing regime. It engages with current debates in international law, critical security studies, global governance, Science and Technology Studies, governmentality scholarship and socio-legal studies. CONTENTS FIGURES FOREWORD ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CASES ABBREVIATIONS INTERVIEWS 1 The Law of the List 2 Global Listing Technologies and the Politics of Expertise 3 The List As Multiple Object: the UN Office of the Ombudsperson 4 Complexity in the Courts: the Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the List 5 Conclusions Bibliography Index