National Security and International Law

My thesis seeks to determine whether there exists a unified, (minimal) core or disparate and regime specific understandings of the term ‘security’ within international law. This thesis will accomplish this by undertaking a transversal analysis of the term ‘security’ across the length and breadth of international law. For purposes of undertaking this transversal analysis, all references to the term ‘security’ as found in international law are organized into the following six clusters for analytical purposes:

• The protection of individuals and groups

• Conflict and counterterrorism

• Common spaces

• Trade and finance

• The scope of sovereignty

• State jurisdiction