Counter-Terrorism – Page 5 – Professor Fiona de Londras

Measuring the Effectiveness of Counter-Terrorism

I am currently in beautiful Giardini Naxos on Sicily for the 9^th Pan-European conference on international affairs, where I am presenting this afternoon on measuring effectiveness in counter-terrorism. The presentation draws on my work on EU counter-terrorism, including the edited collection The Impact, Legitimacy and Effectiveness of EU Counter-Terrorism that came out with Routledge earlier this year. The (very plain) power point that I will use is here, but the key points of the presentation are outlined below.

The first important thing to think about is what we mean by effectiveness when considering counter-terrorism. In very simple terms, we might say that effectiveness is simply the having of an effect, i.e. a measure is effective if it changes the status quo ante in some appreciable way. However, that simple conception is clearly insufficient. Continue reading “Measuring the Effectiveness of Counter-Terrorism”

“Detention in the ‘War on Terror'” Now Available in Paperback

In 2011 Cambridge University Press published my monograph, entitled Detention in the ‘War on Terror’: Can Human Rights Fight Back? The book has now been rereleased in paperback form, at a very reasonable £23.99.

While much of the law has changed since the book was published in 2011, in my view the three core elements of the argument that I outlined in this book remain viable. These are:

In times of terroristic crisis a space rich with the potential for repressive laws targeting the liberties of perceived risk bearers is opened up by a combination of ‘top down’ (or ‘moral’) panic perpetuated by moral and norm entrepreneurs such as politicians and security services and a ‘bottom up’ (or ‘popular’) panic emanating from a popular sense of risk and vulnerability and demand for ‘security’. (Primarily Chapter 1)
In spite of hegemonic efforts by the US & UK to undermine the right to review of the lawfulness of one’s detention, this right remains resilient on the international law, arguably even having been strengthened in recent years. Thus, the international right arguably fares better than domestic rights protections in at least some respects. This can be partially explained by what I term ‘insulating factors’ that distance and, consequently, protect the international right from the convergence of top-down and bottom-up panic experienced in domestic systems. (Primarily Chapter 5)
One way in which the international resilience of the right has impacted on rights protection at domestic level, notwithstanding the panic outlined above, is by its refraction through the courts into domestic jurisprudence, so that counter-terrorism judicial review has been relatively more robust and less deferential than experienced in previous circumstances of terroristic/violent crisis and than might have been expected. (Primarily Chapter 6)

In the meantime I have nuanced my arguments to some extent. For example, I have more fully explored what I described in the book as a ‘realist footnote’ of international adjudication tending to undermine some of the core elements of the right to be free from arbitrary detention (in Saul (ed), Research Handbook on International Law and Terrorism), and identified courts’ involvement in ‘regulatory constitutionalism’ (in Davis & de Londras, Critical Debates on Counter-Terrorism Judicial Review).

Detention in the ‘War on Terror’ is still assigned on reading lists for both undergraduate and graduate courses (esp. Chapters 1 and 5) and so I hope the release in paperback will make it more affordable for, and accessible to, students working in the area.

The Impact, Legitimacy and Effectiveness of EU Counter-Terrorism: New Book!

My new book, co-edited with Josephine Doody, on The Impact, Legitimacy and Effectiveness of EU Counter-Terrorism has now been published by Routledge. The book is available on Google Books here, and can be purchased through Routledge and Amazon. The collection brings together key insights from my FP7-funded project SECILE, which completed last autumn. Featuring chapters from key researchers in the field, it presents empirically-informed findings of the project, together with broader theoretical and principled analyses of how to enhance and assess impact, legitimacy and effectiveness in the EU context. The table of contents is below, and I have also attached a pre-print version of the introduction to this post.

1. Introduction: The Impact, Legitimacy and Effectiveness of EU, Fiona de Londras and Josephine Doody Part I: EU Counter-Terrorism: Its Scope and Institutions 2. Taking stock: the evolution, adoption, implementation and evaluation of EU counter-terrorism policy, Ben Hayes and Chris Jones 3. The Institutional Framework of EU Counter-Terrorism, Josephine Doody Part II: Disciplinary Perspectives on EU Counter-Terrorism 4. Assessing Counter-Terrorism as a Matter of Human Rights: Perspectives from the European Court of Human Rights, Mathias Vermeulen 5. The Societal Impact of EU Counterterrorism, Peter Burgess and Médéric Martins Maze 6. Democratic legitimacy, effectiveness and impact of EU counter-terrorism measures, Yulia Chistyakova 7. Social Appropriateness in EU’s Counter-Terrorism Law and Policy, Bruno Oliveira Martins Part III: Practical Perspectives on EU Counter-Terrorism 8. The Perspectives of Counter-terrorism Operatives on EU Counter-terrorism Law and Policy, Cian C. Murphy, Aldo Zammit Borda and Lucy Hoyte 9. Civil Society Perspectives on EU Counter-Terrorism, Josephine Doody and Rose van der Hilst 10. ‘Closing the Loop’ on EU Counter-Terrorism: Review as Key to Understanding Impact and Enhancing Legitimacy, Fiona de Londras

Here is the Intro outlining the individual chapters.

My chapter in the collection is entitled “Governance Gaps in EU counter terrorism: implications for democracy and constitutionalism”. In it I argue that the making and implementation of EU counter-terrorism raises serious questions as to the extent to which this limb of the Union’s activities is undertaken in accordance with the constitutionalist spirit of the Union and, if not, what implications this may have for constitutionalism and legitimacy within the EU. Although some of these concerns have been doctrinally (if not yet practically) resolved through the dissolution of the three pillars and further empowerment of the European Parliament in the Lisbon Treaty, a number of fundamental concerns persist. The chapter starts by outlining the scope of the EU’s counter-terrorism activities since 2001, before going on to consider the paper’s framing concepts of constitutionalism and legitimacy. Building on this, the paper then assess EU counter-terrorism by reference to provenance, process, democratic oversight and effectiveness in order to consider the extent to which EU constitutionalism may be compromised or called into question in the field of counter-terrorism as so far engaged with by the Union. I argue that the EU experiences constitutionalist tensions in the making and implementation of counter-terrorism law and policy, some of which are resolved by the courts of the EU, but the nature of which point to the need to build further constitutionalist structures into EU counter-terrorism.

Interview at KCL on transnationalism, hybridity and counter-terrorism

Earlier this month I was pleased to participate in the KCL transnational law colloquium, where I presented some work on hybridity, counter-terrorism and human rights including and beyond law. After the colloquium I was interviewed on some of the themes that my presentation raised, and that interview is now available (audio file only) on the KCL YouTube stream here.