LAW AND TERRORISM

Law and Terrorism

Law and Terrorism

Introduction

The following paper is about the current United Kingdom legislative framework governing the gathering of covert intelligence on terrorist suspects. As terrorism always been a sensitive issue in the United Kingdom history, therefore, the legislative framework designed in such a way that the terrorist suspect should be handled properly and according to the law. Whereas, in the second half of the paper, safeguard measures has been discussed in relation to the United Kingdom legislation in terms of gathering of information and to ensure that police and the security services do not violate the civil liberties of the suspected individuals. However, the second half argument is little bit controversial because it is not an easy task because whenever the issue of national security arose, than the agencies became too much active and in this regard, the suspects treated ruthlessly, yet the United Kingdom passing the legislation not to violate the civil rights and every suspect must get an equal chance to defend his\herself.

Discussion

Throughout the history, United Kingdom faced the issue of terrorism and in the recent history; the governments faced issues over the legislation against the terrorist threat whilst complying the legislation as per the European Convention on Human Rights. The United Kingdom's anti-terrorist regime main component is the Terrorism Act of 2000, and the Crime and Security Act 2001, the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 2005 and the Terrorism Act of 2006. These entire acts were passed to provide security to the United Kingdom. However, in addition to above mentioned legislation, there were also criminal law offences that were treated under the terror suspects.

In countering the terrorism, the two significant tools are gathering intelligence as well as to carry out serious and effective prosecution of the terrorist suspects. In the recent times, the discovery of terror plots that carried out in United Kingdom, United States, and Belgium revealed that information sharing among the security and intelligence agencies and the law enforcement agencies hold a significant strategic importance just not because it protect the democratic societies from the threats of terrorist attacks but also it helps in conducting a fair prosecution of the suspect that detained under the terrorist provisions (Nottingham, 2006, pp. 1-7).

Suspect Trials

Terrorist suspect trials based on the intelligence report always been conducted on the performative power. The reason behind that the state through the public prosecutor conveys the message to the general public that the threat of terrorism is being dealt, whereas, on the other hand human rights of the suspect also been provided, in a sense that right of fair trail provided to the suspected. In the United Kingdom, the right of fair trail to the terrorist suspect considered to be the cornerstone of the rule of law and the essence of democratic society because the terror suspects are presumed to be innocent and the trail conducted on equality basis within a suitable time frame by the neutral and independent ...