The current report seeks to capture wider observations, and to summarize the key findings and recommendations of a three year multinational, multidisciplinary project on the rule of law and counter-terrorism between the University of Nottingham, the Club of Madrid, Dr Silvia Casale, and the University of Málaga, under the umbrella of a global initiative to strengthen the rule of law called the World Justice Project. The overarching theme is how legitimate security imperatives may be accommodated within rather than erode the existing rule of law framework.

The current report draws heavily upon and in some cases develops the contributions and recommendations of over 40 multinational, multidisciplinary experts – drawn from inter alia judicial, practitioner, policy-maker, institutional, academic, policing, military, and civil society perspectives, and from every major region of the world – which culminated in the publication of a significant 1200 page book: AM Salinas de Friás, KLH Samuel, and ND White (eds), Counter-Terrorism: International Law and Practice (Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012). Additionally, a number of further expert submissions were made to the project for the purpose of writing this report, and the report’s authors have contributed new sections also.