Anti-terrorism legislation

Anti-terrorism legislation are laws aimed at fighting terrorism. They usually, if not always, follow specific bombings or assassinations. Anti-terrorism legislation usually includes specific amendments allowing the state to bypass its own legislation when fighting terrorism-related crimes, under alleged grounds of necessity.

Because of this suspension of regular procedure, such legislation is sometimes criticized as a form of lois scélérates which may unjustly repress all kinds of popular protests. Critics often allege that anti-terrorism legislation endangers democracy by creating a state of exception that allows authoritarian style of government.

Although some legal scholars have long expressed concern that the wording of anti-terrorism laws would allow them to be used against non-violent direct action protestors, the proscription of UK-based direct action group Palestine Action was described by one expert as "unprecedented". In some countries, direct action is expressly excluded from the definition of terrorism.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.