The Law of the List

The spread of violent extremism, 9/11, the rise of ISIL and movement of 'foreign terrorist fighters' are dramatically expanding the powers of the UN Security Council to govern risky cross-border flows and threats by non-state actors. New security measures and data infrastructures are being built that threaten to erode human rights and transform the world order in far-reaching ways. The Law of the List is an interdisciplinary study of global security law in motion. It follows the ISIL and Al-Qaida sanctions list, created by the UN Security Council to counter global terrorism, to different sites around the world mapping its effects as an assemblage. Drawing on interviews with Council officials, diplomats, security experts, judges, secret diplomatic cables and the author's experiences as a lawyer representing listed people, The Law of the List shows how governing through the list is reconfiguring global security, international law and the powers of international organisations.
Governing though the technology of the list is transforming international law, global security and the power of international organisations.
Gavin Sullivan is a lecturer in law at the University of Kent. His research focuses on the politics of global security law and global data infrastructures, and has been published in journals such as Transnational Legal Theory, the Leiden Journal of International Law, the American Journal of International Law and Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. Gavin is a practising lawyer with experience in human rights litigation. He coordinates the Transnational Listing Project and has represented numerous individuals in delisting proceedings before the UN Office of the Ombudsperson. He is a member of the Law and Society Association, the European Society of International Law, the Socio-Legal Studies Association and the Law Society of England and Wales.
'Gavin Sullivan brings to life the mundane technicalities of UN Counterterrorism Sanctions. His synthesis of actor-network theory, Foucauldian genealogy, multi-sited ethnography and socio-legal studies illuminates the intricate politics of global security law, and expands our vision of international law.' Annelise Riles, Director of the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Studies, Northwestern University
'Sullivan's laboratory study of the regulatory architecture that is both shaped by and shaping these forces of alienation, exclusion and control, offers an extremely perceptive critique of a world of words and actions that has become increasingly undecipherable - and, unbearable.' Peer Zumbansen, Inaugural Chair of Transnational Law and Founding Director, Transnational Law Institute, King's College London
'The Law of the List carefully traces the emergence of global security law through sites of global governance where legal and security practices are reassembled. Both theoretically and methodologically, the book will be indispensable reading for scholars and students researching contemporary security governance.' Claudia Aradau, Professor of International Politics, Department of War Studies, King's College London
'The Law of the List is an important contribution to a new generation of socio-legal scholarship on international and global law.' Nehal Bhuta, Chair of International Law, University of Edinburgh