El derecho en la guerra contra el terrorismo. El derecho de la guerra, el derecho penal internacional y el derecho de la guerra dentro del derecho penal interno (“derecho penal del enemigo”)

Abstract

After the events of september 11. 2001 in NYC the categories of the law of war, international criminal law and criminal law have become blurred. The reaction of the US administration to the attacks of september 11. with the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the creation of the Patriot Act, Military Commissions and the detention of so-called “enemy combatants” in Guantánamo has arguably led to an extension of those branches of the law beyond their traditional limits, and at the same time encroached on the reach of civil liberties and human rights in practice. The aim of my paper is firstly a comparative analysis between the law of war and international criminal law, and secondly, building on that comparison, to query whether in the case of necessity, when the external and internal security of a state are in danger, we need a special national criminal law (“Enemy Criminal Law for Enemies”), to fight, prevent and punish terrorist/mass attacks on civil populations.