The Formation of a Customary International Crime: Global Terrorism Human (In) Security

The article studies the concept of human security (hs) as embraced by the un General Assembly and Secretary Generals, and its instrumentality in the promotion of a customary international crime of global terrorism. Such a crime exists in the opinion of the Appellate Chamber of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. Regarding terrorism in international criminal law (icl), not in armed conflict, I maintain that the concept of hs has been pivotal in furthering the “criminalisation” of terrorism in matters peace and security. I submit that (i) that the absence of a universally agreed upon definition of (global) terrorism does not suffice to detract from the finding that such a transnational crime exists, and (ii) in addition to the various and largely agreed constitutive elements of customary law, normative paradigmatic developments – here in the case of terrorism, and in the past two decades – have significantly supported this customarisation trend.