Rebel with a Cause? Terrorists and Humanitarian Law

Abstract

This article suggests that international law has great difficulty in deciding whether terrorists should be treated as ordinary criminals or as political actors. This ambivalence is visible in treaties on the law of war, as well as in instruments dealing more straightforwardly with terrorism, and is traceable (at least in part) to an ambivalence about politics in general. Still, even if the law does not give clear‐cut answers, there are sound reasons for treating terrorists in a humane manner.