TERRORISM AND THE LAW: THE CONSTRUCTION AND APPLICATION OF LAWS AND LEGAL POLICIES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Leeds
Department Name: Law
Abstract
Contemporary experiences of terrorism, conjured by images of aircraft crashing into skyscrapers, suicide bombers and public spaces shrouded by barricades and cameras, have become vivid. Terrorism has become a compelling trigger for official rejoinder in policy and executive action regarding policing, security, criminal justice, community relations, and foreign affairs.
As a result, the interplay between terrorism and law has been unremitting. The legal history started well before 2001, with Irish and colonial experiences, but the Terrorism Act 2000 marked an important new phase. The Act established a unified and permanent regime and imparted a greater emphasis upon international terrorism. It has since been subject to many changes and additions, as the lived experiences of terrorism or the panics about imagined risks have driven on a ferocious pace in legal transformation. Waypoints include important court judgments, voluminous Parliamentary debates and papers, and official studies and data. Nor has the outpouring of laws been confined to the United Kingdom. Other jurisdictions, most notably the USA with its PATRIOT Act, but also Australia and Canada, have drawn upon each other's experiences to produce equally detailed codes. The international communities have likewise responded, with conventions, Security Council resolutions, European framework directives, and institutional formations such as the UN Counter Terrorism Committee.
This project will take stock of terrorism laws affecting the United Kingdom. The time is ripe, toward the end of a decade so affected by terrorism, to provide an exposition and analysis of these legal measures, their policy backgrounds, and their significance in practice. The prime product of the project will involve research for, and the production of, a substantial book, entitled, 'Terrorism and the Law', which has been commissioned by Oxford University Press. The book will offer an impressive and original accumulation of knowledge as well as insight and understanding based upon it.
The core objective being addressed by the book will be secured through the following principal themes. There will be the accumulation of knowledge about terrorism laws. These laws are extensive, complex and detailed. Since the Terrorism Act 2000, four further major Acts have been passed, dealing with detention powers, control orders and radicalisation. It will be assessed whether it is possible to view these provisions as a permanent and coherent code, reflecting that the 21st century concept of 'normality' in criminal justice embodies increasing fragmentation and specialisation to respond peremptorily to 'special' situations of risk.
There will be reflection upon the strategies by which the law relating to terrorism has been developed. Those strategies are principally set by the Home Office CONTEST (Counter-Terrorism) Strategy.
The project will next examine how the law relating to terrorism is affected by values other than security and risk. Those influences include normative constraints, especially individual human rights. There is also the value of accountability which involves a number of tiers and mechanisms - expert inquiry, governmental oversight, and parliamentary scrutiny. Overall, the laws against terrorism are often perceived as straining legitimacy, and security and liberty must be weighed in the light of legal doctrine and practices, including claims of deference to the executive.
The project will additionally locate the law within the dynamics of power and practice. Account will be taken of quantitative (mainly official source) statistical data, while qualitative information will be provided by practitioners through interviews. These data may also indicate how legal policy and action has reflected the agendas of some stakeholders (above all, the security forces) compared to the relative disregard for others (suspects and victims).
As a result, the interplay between terrorism and law has been unremitting. The legal history started well before 2001, with Irish and colonial experiences, but the Terrorism Act 2000 marked an important new phase. The Act established a unified and permanent regime and imparted a greater emphasis upon international terrorism. It has since been subject to many changes and additions, as the lived experiences of terrorism or the panics about imagined risks have driven on a ferocious pace in legal transformation. Waypoints include important court judgments, voluminous Parliamentary debates and papers, and official studies and data. Nor has the outpouring of laws been confined to the United Kingdom. Other jurisdictions, most notably the USA with its PATRIOT Act, but also Australia and Canada, have drawn upon each other's experiences to produce equally detailed codes. The international communities have likewise responded, with conventions, Security Council resolutions, European framework directives, and institutional formations such as the UN Counter Terrorism Committee.
This project will take stock of terrorism laws affecting the United Kingdom. The time is ripe, toward the end of a decade so affected by terrorism, to provide an exposition and analysis of these legal measures, their policy backgrounds, and their significance in practice. The prime product of the project will involve research for, and the production of, a substantial book, entitled, 'Terrorism and the Law', which has been commissioned by Oxford University Press. The book will offer an impressive and original accumulation of knowledge as well as insight and understanding based upon it.
The core objective being addressed by the book will be secured through the following principal themes. There will be the accumulation of knowledge about terrorism laws. These laws are extensive, complex and detailed. Since the Terrorism Act 2000, four further major Acts have been passed, dealing with detention powers, control orders and radicalisation. It will be assessed whether it is possible to view these provisions as a permanent and coherent code, reflecting that the 21st century concept of 'normality' in criminal justice embodies increasing fragmentation and specialisation to respond peremptorily to 'special' situations of risk.
There will be reflection upon the strategies by which the law relating to terrorism has been developed. Those strategies are principally set by the Home Office CONTEST (Counter-Terrorism) Strategy.
The project will next examine how the law relating to terrorism is affected by values other than security and risk. Those influences include normative constraints, especially individual human rights. There is also the value of accountability which involves a number of tiers and mechanisms - expert inquiry, governmental oversight, and parliamentary scrutiny. Overall, the laws against terrorism are often perceived as straining legitimacy, and security and liberty must be weighed in the light of legal doctrine and practices, including claims of deference to the executive.
The project will additionally locate the law within the dynamics of power and practice. Account will be taken of quantitative (mainly official source) statistical data, while qualitative information will be provided by practitioners through interviews. These data may also indicate how legal policy and action has reflected the agendas of some stakeholders (above all, the security forces) compared to the relative disregard for others (suspects and victims).
