It may be commonplace to state that the world will never be the same as it was before 11 September 2001. Yet, it is obvious that the magnitude and audacity of the horrifying events of that day have presented international terrorism in an unprecedented way, namely as a real and potentially catastrophic threat to human security and international peace. This raises the question with regards to the role of international law, and to what extent current public international law provides an adequate framework for combating international terrorism. Are further development and adaptation of principles and rules of international law necessary to deal more effectively with the threat of terrorist attacks and with those who do not play by these rules? These issues will be addressed in section 2 of this article.