This issue of this Review covers a range of topics which we hope will be of interest to our readers.

It starts off with counter-terrorism at sea, more specifically interdicting ships transporting terrorists, followed by overview of the international law aspects of the European Union’s security and defence policy, in particular the law of armed conflict and human rights. With the Belgian occupation of the Rhineland in 1918-1922, this issue also offers a historical perspective.

Under case-law and recent developments, this issue contains another contribution relating to terrorism, namely on the Obama administration’s positions on detention at Guantanamo after the various Supreme Court judgments. Clearly, legal aspects of the fight against terrorism will continue to be studied in this Review for some time to come. In addition, we have a report of the 2009 NATO Legal Conference and hope that these reports will become a tradition.

While the proceedings of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War’s XVIIIth Congress on ‘Practice and Customary Law in Military Operations, including Peace Support Operations’ (Tunis, May 2009) will be published in volume XVIII of the Recueils de la Société internationale de Droit militaire et de Droit de la Guerre, the programme, questionnaire, recommendations and the announcement of the winner of the Ciardi prize - Dr. Carsten Stahn, for his book The Law and Practice of International Territorial Administration. Versailles to Iraq and Beyond - are also included in this issue of this Review.

Finally, as always, there is a series of book reviews and advertisements.