ABSTRACT
Our starting point is that the rules of international law regulating armed confl icts (LOAC) govern the “war on terror.” By war on terror, we refer to the confl ict between the United States and the al Qaeda terrorist organization. On one side sits the United States Congress, the United States Supreme Court, the United Nations Security Council, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which have all found that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, DC initiated an armed confl ict for purposes of the LOAC (NATO 2001 ; UN 2001a , 2001b ; US Congress 2001 ). On the other sit prominent scholars and international organizations, among others, who have raised doubts about the applicability of the LOAC to this confl ict.
