Useful Model?: Emergency and Anti-Terrorist Powers in Northern Ireland (From International Terrorism Prevention Strategies, P 27-49, 2003, Oksanna Hatalak, ed. -- See NCJ-203260)

• NCJ Number: 203263
• Author(s): Colm Campbell; Ita Connolly
• Date Published: 2003
• Length: 23 pages
• Sale Source: United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI)
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Italy

Annotation

This paper examines the use of anti-terrorist and emergency powers in response to attacks and the complex problems of principle and pragmatism associated in the use of these powers, focusing specifically on lessons learned in Northern Ireland and the legal issues associated with their use of emergency and anti-terrorist powers.

Abstract

Since the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, attention has been focused on the question of appropriate anti-terrorist legal strategies across the world. The invocation of anti-terrorist and emergency powers in response to the terrorist attacks raises questions and sees complex problems of principle and pragmatism; the legitimacy in combating terrorism. In this chapter, the author uses Northern Ireland as an example on the exercise of emergency and anti-terrorist powers and examines whether their use of such powers provides an example for others to follow. The examination includes: (1) conducting an assessment questioning some of the assumptions implicit in projections of the exemplary nature of the Northern Ireland experience; (2) identifying a number of streams in the development of the United Kingdom’s anti-terrorist and emergency legislation, tracing developments from their Northern Ireland roots through to the Terrorism Act of 2000 and the post-September 2001 measure, the Anti-terrorism Crime and Security Act of 2001; (3) exploring the international law dimension of Northern Ireland’s powers under the scrutinizing of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)in relation to emergencies; and (4) a discussion on the ECHR’s jurisprudence relationship to the earlier exploration of effectiveness. The experience of emergency and anti-terrorist powers in Northern Ireland poses problems on several inter-related levels. They pose serious risks to civil liberties and to human rights protection, as well as throwing the onus of justifying their utilization onto the state. The example of Northern Ireland’s emergency and anti-terrorist powers is not one that can safely be followed unproblematically.