The relationship between terrorism and criminal law

Abstract

In order to be successful, the fight against international terrorism demands for a wide variety of instruments, ranging from the signing of international treaties and a well-balanced foreign policy to preventive measures like development cooperation with financially weak countries. Among these, the role of criminal law is not to be underestimated. Due to its unique legal consequences, like e.g. custodial sentences, it can be used to enforce the commandments and prohibitions of a legal system in case other measures and possibilities are failing to do so. An effective and constitutional strategy for combatting terrorism, therefore, always has to rely on the means of criminal law. However, in the ongoing discussion on how to deal with the terrorist threat it is usually taken for granted that terrorism or at least the use of the term is a natural part of the context of criminal law. The following statements are meant to challenge this assumption. They intend to show that the relationship between terrorism and criminal law is being complicated by the fact that we are dealing with two completely different concepts. All in all it has to be pointed out that there is no valid reason for the undifferentiated use of the word “terrorism” in the field of criminal law and criminal procedure so far.