The paper addresses the emergence and hegemonisation of ''bad norm'' narratives in the field of counter-terrorism and its consequences for the international human rights regime. It approaches the first two questions raised in the conference panel: 1. How are norm narratives constructed and under which conditions do they gain hegemony in the global political sphere? 2. How do specific narratives in international politics produce the norms they display? In the paper, we develop and present a theoretical and methodological framework, oriented along the model of the ''life circle'' of norms, in order to study normative argumentation and ''bad norm'' dynamics. Based on theoretical and methodological tools provided by securitisation and framing theory, we identify and explore the processes of narrative construction and rephrasing to justify restrictions with regard to existing human rights norms and, in turn, expand the scope of executive action beyond current normative constraints. We then draw our attention to convergence theory and argue that when a coalition of ''norm challengers'' has developed, using the same or similar patterns of arguments, established international normative orders protecting human and liberty rights might be weakened over time and a more fundamental process of norm erosion, respectively a process of ''bad norm'' emergence and consolidation, can take place.
