Research On Anti-Terrorism Legislation In The United Kingdom

With a long history fighting with terrorism, United Kingdom is undoubtedly a typical anti-terrorist country in Europe. A relatively sound system has been established with a considerable number of anti-terrorism organizations and apartments. This thesis, putting criminal rules and policies related to anti-terrorism, will simply introduce relevant knowledge on terrorism, including the definition of terrorism, terrorism and criminal rules, terrorism and human rights, and British anti-terrorism apartments. Two objectives rise from the first chapter:on the one hand, to give a literature review on the researches on related area and thus to find the gap where the value of this thesis lies in; on the other hand, to build a reference system for this thesis to raise some questions and to give readers a clearer explanation.The second chapter will present the backgrounds of UK anti-terrorism legislation. Dated from late 19th century and early 20th, the earliest anti-terrorism legislation rooted in criminal law, which is also in practice nowadays. Following to draw an overall picture of anti-terrorism legislation in the 21st century, the third chapter will provide information in a detailed way on Terrorism Act 2000, Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, Terrorism Act 2006, Terrorism Act 2008, and the prospected Terrorist Asset-Freezing Act 2011. It has become a tendency that every huge terrorist attack can raise an Act, and the government has been used to it to cover its incapability. The consequences are the increasing number of offences and criticism and cases reached to the court.The forth chapter will compare the anti-terrorism legislation before 21st century and after that. Several tendencies will be proposed through analysis, including the extension of terrorism's definition, the conflicts between provisions and criminal procedural principles, various methods for anti-terrorism exceeding the area of criminal law, and the change from Objectivism to Subjectivism. Maintaining the above analysis in mind, the last chapter will suggest a cautious attitude towards numerous provisions and the government's exaggerated powers, holding that both the Systematism thought of jurisprudence and principles and ideas of criminal law and criminal procedural law can not be abandoned. Methods against terrorism can be partly put into criminal penalty; as to terrorist actions, it is part of criminal law; as for threats, it should be removed from the definition of terrorism offence; some financing measures can be deepened by property penalty; regarding the prevention of terrorism, some experience from criminal law can be benefited, meanwhile multi-apartment cooperation and comprehensive management are in need.