Comparative Study On The Legal Mechanism Of Anti-terrorism

Finding and maintaining the balance between national security and human rights and civil liberties is the key to acting justly and legitimately in anti-terrorism legislation and activities. However, it is wrong to see keeping such a balance as simply taking one side over the other, as although national security and human rights require different means and strategies of protection, their ultimate aim is the same, namely to keep people safe and sound. Both international and national actions must firmly adhere to the norms and principles set by international human rights and humanitarian law. At this early stage of constructing the country’s own anti-terrorism laws, it is important for China to be critically aware of the strengths as well as short-comings of anti-terrorism legislation and activities in other countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, rethink and correct the simplistic binary misunderstanding of placing national security and personal freedom at oppositional ends, before developing legitimate strategies that could work in the Chinese context.