University of Toronto law professor Kent Roach takes a hard-hitting look at the failures of global anti-terrorism policies over the last 10 years in his latest book The 9/11 Effect: Comparative Counter-Terrorism, to be released Sept. 1, 2011 by Cambridge University Press in New York.
In the follow up to his previously published book, September 11: Consequences for Canada, and as the world remembers on the upcoming 10th anniversary of the devastating attacks in the US, Roach scrutinizes the far-reaching impact of Resolution 1373, passed by the UN Security Council shortly after 9/11, which urged countries to define terrorism and the financial support of terrorism as serious crimes. Roach specifically examines the responses by the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Egypt, Syria, Israel, Singapore and Indonesia, and his book includes a look at anti-terrorism policy around the world, the rule of law, and democracy over the past decade.
Key conclusions in The 9/11 Effect:
- A changed balance between liberty and security with the US, UK and Canada relying more on military and administrative detention on the basis of secret evidence and prosecutions of speech associated with terrorism—practices before 9/11 that were largely reserved for countries such as Egypt, Syria and Israel. These less restrained alternatives to criminal prosecutions have often failed to attain legitimacy.
- Failure of the United Nations to provide sound global leadership since 9/11, including the continued inability to reach agreement on a definition of terrorism and the use of secret evidence for terrorist blacklisting.
- American "exceptionalism" in the form of extra-legalism—the use of dubious claims of legality (i.e. the torture memos)—to support illegal conduct, combined with comparative legislative restraint, with the Patriot Act being more restrained in many ways than comparable British, Australian or Canadian legislation.
- Failure of western nations to engage in rehabilitation of terrorists, a technique used with success in Singapore.
- Fundamental accountability gaps domestically and internationally, as review mechanisms have not kept pace with intensified whole of government responses to the prevention of terrorism.
The 9/11 Effect highlights the discovery of best practices in shaping global anti-terrorism policies, and contemplates how 9/11 has influenced international law. The author of 11 books, Prof. Roach is a member of the International Task Force on Terrorism, Democracy and the Law. He has served with the Commission of Inquiries into Maher Arar and the Bombing of Air India Flight 182. Roach holds the Prichard-Wilson Chair in Law and Public Policy at the Faculty of Law. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2002.
For review copies of The 9/11 Effect contact: Nicole Villeneuve, Publicist (212) 337-6567, nvilleneuve@cambridge.org
For further information:
Prof. Kent Roach
University of Toronto Faculty of Law
Kent.roach@utoronto.ca
Bio: http://uoft.me/kentroach
The 9/11 Effect: http://www.cambridge.org/us/knowledge/isbn/item6453524/?site_locale=en_US
Lucianna Ciccocioppo
Director, External Relations
University of Toronto Faculty of Law
Lucianna.ciccocioppo@utoronto.ca
416-946-0334