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Our security correspondent Frank Gardner writes:

"'Britain and America have actively undermined the framework of international law in the way they fight terrorism'. That's the conclusion of a panel of international judges and lawyers whose report is published today. The damning report by the International Commission of Jurists is the result of a global study carried out over 3 years.

The report released today will make uncomfortable reading for many in governments on both sides of the Atlantic. After a painstaking study carried out over 3 years in several countries, the panel of eminent lawyers and judges have concluded that the framework of international law that existed before the 9/11 attacks was robust and effective. But now, it says, it is being actively undermined by many states and that liberal democracies like the US and the UK have led that undermining. Many of the measures used to fight terrorism, says the report, are illegal and counter-productive. The panellists express concern at the lack of adequate safeguards in the use of control orders, the weakness of diplomatic assurances in relation to deportations and at what the report calls 'excessive detention without charge'. At 28 days, it says, Britain has the longest period of pre-charge detention of any common law country. Overall, it concludes, the gains made in the previous century to a shared concensus on human rights have been immensely damaged over the last seven years."

You can read the report for yourself .

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