The decennium of counter-terrorism legal responses since 9/11 provides a
suitable waypoint at which to take stock. Those terrorist attacks in the
United States, followed by atrocities such as the Madrid train bombings
of March 2004, and the July 2005 killings in London have profoundly
altered and reshaped the priorities of legal systems around the world. The
‘new’ terrorism1 has even been perceived at times as threatening the lives
of democratic nations, resulting in a declaration of ‘the war on terror’ by
US President George W Bush2 and the lodging of a notice of derogation
from the right to liberty by the United Kingdom.3