Abstract
This chapter on UK counter-terrorism measures begins the book’s empirical analysis of post-9/11 counter-terrorism measures. It examines the historical development of counter-terrorism law and policy in the UK before engaging in a more detailed analysis of post-9/11 legislation and the types of contagion to which it has given rise. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the long experience of the UK with terrorism, and its history of normalisation of counter-terrorism powers, similar patterns can be observed in the post-9/11 period. Certainly in the years immediately following the attacks the government took the opportunity to expand various state powers for general crime control purposes and misused special police powers, to little effect. While this tendency appeared to wane as the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks lost their grip on the political imagination, dangerous precedents had already been set.
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Notes
- 1.
Non-jury or ‘Diplock’ courts were discontinued in Northern Ireland in 2007, but can still be invoked in exceptional circumstances.
- 2.
Criminal Evidence Order Northern Ireland (1988).
- 3.
See comments of the UK Supreme Court in R v Gul [2013] UKSC 64.
- 4.
- 5.
472 Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, 21 Feb 2008, Column 561.
- 6.
Although not yet enacted, this Bill could be brought forward at any time as emergency legislation under ‘exceptional circumstances’ (see further, Fenwick, 2013).
- 7.
[2004] UKHL 56.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
See Secretary of State for the Home Department v. JJ [2007] 3 WLR 51; Secretary of State for the Home Department v. AF [2007] 3 WLR 681; AP v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [2010] 3 WLR 51.
- 10.
Secretary of State for the Home Department v. AF (No.3) [2009] 3 WLR 74.
- 11.
Council Framework Decision of 13 June 2002 on Combating Terrorism. 2002/475/JHA.
- 12.
Defined in Article 1(1) FDCT as acts committed with the intention of ‘seriously intimidating a population, or unduly compelling a Government or international organisation to perform or abstain from performing any act, or seriously destabilising or destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a country or an international organisation’.
- 13.
.Directive (EU) 2017/541 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2017 on combating terrorism and replacing Council Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA and amending Council Decision 2005/671/JHA.
- 14.
Council Framework Decision of 13 June 2002 on the European Arrest Warrant and the Surrender Procedures between Member States. 2002/584/JHA.
- 15.
According to historical National Crime Agency data, the total number of requests has jumped from 1865 in 2004 to 12,613 in 2015.
- 16.
Section 157 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing 2014 Act. This added a new section 21A to the Extradition Act 2003.
- 17.
Ustawa o rzeczach znalezionych. Dziennik Ustaw [Official Journal of Laws], No. 0, Location 397, 2015.
- 18.
Kadi v. Council and Commission (Kadi I, CFI), CFI Case T-315/01 (2005) ECR II-3649; Kadi and Al Barakaat International Foundation v. Council and Commission (Kadi I, ECJ), ECJ Joined Cases C-402/05P & 415/05P (2008) ECR I-6351; Kadi v. Commission (Kadi II, EGC), EGC Case T-85/09 (2010) ECR II-5177; Commission, Council and United Kingdom v. Kadi (Kadi II, ECJ), ECJ Joined Cases C-584/10, C-593/10 & C-595/10 (2013).
- 19.
Ahmed et al v. HM Treasury [2010] UKSC 2, [2010] 2 WLR 378.
- 20.
H.L. Deb., col. 189, November 27, 2001 (Lord Waddington).
- 21.
Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006.
- 22.
Gillan v UK (Application no. 4158/05), European Court of Human Rights.
- 23.
Ibid., paragraph 85.
- 24.
Now section 47A, Terrorism Act 2000. Emphasis added.
- 25.
The offences of encouragement and dissemination carry maximum penalties of seven years’ imprisonment.
- 26.
In its Report on the 2011 Act, the Joint Committee for Human Rights (2014) rightly took issue with the supposed investigative function of these measures, arguing that they still represent a strategy for temporarily ‘neutralising’ terror suspects.
- 27.
An individual may only be required to live in a residence that is more than 200 miles from his or her residence if s/he agrees.
- 28.
- 29.
As Shami Chakrabarti and Casey (2005), the then director of Liberty, commented at the time, ‘It seems to me that we would not be living with the chilling spectre of the anti-terror “control order” (indefinite punishment based on secret intelligence) if we had been more critical of his older cousin, the Asbo.’
- 30.
Hansard (1 March 2010), supra note 42, col 739 (Andrew Dismore).
- 31.
R v Incedal and Rarmoul-Bouhadjar (2014).
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Hamilton, C. (2019). Counter-Terrorism in the UK. In: Contagion, Counter-Terrorism and Criminology. Crime Prevention and Security Management. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12322-2_2
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