基本説明
New in paperback. Hardcover was published in 2006.
Full Description
Despite numerous efforts since the 1920s, the international community has failed to define or criminalize 'terrorism' in international law. This book first explores the policy reasons for defining and criminalizing terrorism, before proposing the basic elements of an international definition. Terrorism should be defined and criminalized because it seriously undermines fundamental human rights, jeopardizes the State and peaceful politics, and may threaten international peace and security. Definition would also help to distinguish political from private violence, eliminating the overreach of the many 'sectoral' anti-terrorism treaties. A definition may also help to confine the scope of UN Security Council resolutions since 11 September 2001, which have encouraged States to pursue unilateral and excessive counter-terrorism measures.
Defining terrorism as a discrete international crime normatively recognizes and protects vital international community values and interests, symbolically expresses community condemnation, and stigmatizes offenders. Any definition of terrorism must also accommodate reasonable claims to political violence, particularly against repressive governments, and this book examines the range of exceptions, justifications, excuses, defences, and amnesties potentially available to terrorists, as well as purported exceptions such as self-determination struggles, 'State terrorism', and armed conflicts.
While this book seeks to minimize recourse to violence, it recognises that international law should not become complicit in oppression by criminalizing legitimate forms of political resistance. In the absence of an international definition, the remainder of the book explores how the international community has responded to terrorism in international and 'regional' treaties, the United Nations system, and in customary law. The final part of the book explores the distinctive prohibitions and crime of 'terrorism' in armed conflict under international humanitarian law.
Contents
Introduction: Concepts of Terrorism ; 1. Reasons for Defining and Criminalizing Terrorism ; Nature of International Crimes ; International Criminological Policy ; Terrorism as a Discrete International Crime ; Elements of a Definition of Terrorism ; 2. Defending 'Terrorism': Justifications and Excuses for Terrorist Violence ; Common Justifications for Terrorism ; Criminal Law Defences to Terrorism ; Circumstances Precluding Group Responsibility ; 'Illegal but Justifiable' Terrorism ; Discretion and Law: Never Negotiate with Terrorists? ; 3. Terrorism in International and Regional Treaty Law ; Transnational Criminal Law Treaties ; Treaties of Regional Organizations ; Attempts at Definition in Treaty Law 1930 - 2005 ; 4. Terrorism in Customary International Law ; UN General Assembley Practice ; UN Security Council Practice ; Judicial Decisions Defining Terrorism ; National Terrorism Legislation ; 5. Terrorism in International Humanitarian Law ; Early Developments 1919 - 1948 ; Second World War and Aftermath 1939 - 1948 ; 1949 Geneva Conventions and 1977 Protocols ; International Criminal Tribunals since 1993 ; Individual Criminal Responsibility for 'Terrorism' ; Customary Crimes of Terrorism in Armed Conflict ; US Military Commissions and 'Terrorism' ; No Separate Category of 'Terrorist' ; Conclusion: Proving Terror, Avoiding Duplication ; CONCLUSION ; BIBLIOGRAPHY
