Balancing Liberty and Security? A Legal Analysis of United Kingdom Anti-Terrorist Legislation

Abstract

This paper traces developments in the United Kingdom related to counter-terrorism during the last few years and highlights the challenges to the rule of law raised, in particular, for the judiciary. It portrays the British constitutional order finding its feet after the fundamental changes made by the 1998 Human Rights Act, describing the tension arising with the judicial role changing whilst facing controversial measures such as 90-days detention, detention orders, shoot-to-kill policy, etc. An analysis of case law, government action and academic debate ends with a call for a new formula to be found by which security interests can be measured against human rights.

Keywords: counter-terrorism, rule of law, control orders, pre-trial detention, special advocates

JEL Classification: K1, K14, K42