Analysis of Terrorist Attacks in International Law Research Paper

Analysis of Terrorist Attacks in International Law - Research Paper Example Hague Convention considers the unlawful seizure of an aircraft, an international criminal offense and even the accomplices of the hijackers are charged with the same offense and even the states that get connected to the offense are asked to abide with the international law of hijacking. "The Convention requires each contracting state to take such measures as may be necessary to establish its jurisdiction over the offense when the offense is committed on board an aircraft registered in that state, or when the aircraft lands in that state with the offender on board, or when the alleged offender is present in its territory and it does not extradite him to one of the other states just mentioned" American Society of International Law.1" The use of the hijacked aircraft as lethal weapons, resulting in the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of persons, may be a crime against humanity under international law. The Statute of the International Criminal Court, which is in the process of obtaining the necessary ratifications to enter into force, defines a crime against humanity as any of several listed acts "when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack." The acts include murder and "other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health." When the attack happened in 2001 on the World Trade Centre, the International Criminal Court was not yet functioning. Still, the crimes were held as crimes against humanity that would be subject to all domestic criminal courts of the world and eventually they came under the jurisdiction of International Criminal Court. Under the jurisdiction of international law, not only any country could try the terrorists for the terrorist acts within the borders of that particular country irrespective of their nationality and citizenship according to the statutes that are in force, but also the terrorists could be sent to another country for trial if that country's grievance against such terrorists is more severe. All the countries can exercise the universal jurisdiction for the crimes committed against their State. According to the universal law, any country can bring such terrorist offenses under its own law and prosecute the offenders if 'they are within its custody'.International law issues can also crop up if any country is obviously harboring terrorists who have already committed acts of terrorism anywhere in the world. Military action against such a country is definitely not advised, but the country could be the target of many other international actions like sanctions, trade embargos etc. If there is an extradition treaty between the two countries, it should be honored immediately and not doing so, can earn the status of a rogue nation to the un-obliging country.