TERRORISM LAW & POLICY
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[continued] Our jobs, if not our lives, are going to be refined (if not redefined) by, among other things, the need to be more aware of how the United States is perceived in other countries, among not only the wealthiest and most technologically developed nations but the least affluent and least developed as well. In contrast to the Cold War era in which we were raised and educated, the threats to our security, we now know first-hand, come not only from vast and powerful rivals but also from the discrete and desolate.

Thus, regardless of our area of specialization, we all will need a basic familiarity with the conceptual underpinnings of the law and criminology of terrorism. The materials collected and linked in the Terrorism and Terrorists section of JURIST's Terrorism Law & Policy guide include: recent advisories and notices about potential threats, from a variety of government offices; pre- and post-September 11th assessments of terrorism threats offered by various government sources and committees; reports and profiles of known terrorists and terrorist networks and groups; discussion of definitions, characteristics, motivations and trends involving terrorism; and close to twenty institutions which undertake research on terrorism. These materials provide a valuable background to the more specific topics such as bioterrorism and civil liberties found in the other pages of the Terrorism Law & Policy guide.

Reaching consensus on the definition of "terrorism" is even more arduous than defining, say, "obscenity." Indeed, by one calculation, over 100 definitions of terrorism had been proposed before 1983.[1] Although most terrorist-related provisions of U.S. law replicate either the definition in subsection (d) of 22 U.S.C. sec. 2656f, the legislation which mandates the State Department to prepare an annual country report on terrorism (entitled "Patterns of Global Terrorism"), or subsection (c) of 50 U.S.C. 1801, the electronic surveillance section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, none of the twelve separate international conventions on terrorism contain a definition of the act.

Nevertheless, most legal and working definitions, whether of international[2] or domestic terrorism, are constructed of four or five fundamental elements:

  1. The victims: The victims of terrorism are usually specified as civilians or non-combatants, in order to differentiate terrorism from attacks on military targets, which are outright acts of war. Note that "non-combatants" would presumably include military personnel who are not in active service due to being wounded, off-duty, etc. "Civilians" would normally cover attacks on government employees[3], such as persons in the federal building in Oklahoma City. (The occasional and unfortunate insertion of the term "innocent" in the description of civilians makes the matter unduly subjective. "Innocent" is probably included to convey that the victims of terrorism are usually random or symbolic targets.)

  2. The targets: The persons who are the victims of terrorism are merely its direct targets. Most acts of terrorism have secondary or ultimate targets, usually the leaders of one or more governments. The victims are used by the terrorists to convey a coercive message to the targets. (See "The intent")

  3. The intent: The intent of terrorism is either to intimidate or coerce a civilian population (presumably a larger group than that selected as specific victims), that is, to spread fear widely for its own sake; or to coercively influence or manipulate the conduct or policy of one or more governments (the ultimate targets) through the intimidation of civilians or non-combatants.

  4. The means: Terrorism involves violence or the threat of violence (often described as "dangerous acts") against persons or property. Some definitions enumerate specific acts such as assassination, hostage taking, bombing, sabotage, cyber-terrorism, bio-terrorism, and hijacking or other violent acts against civil aircraft or other modes of public transportation[4].

  5. The motivation: While motivation is not usually a formal element of a crime, some definitions of terrorism specify that its acts are "politically motivated." The term "politically" is used in these contexts as an umbrella for a range of justifications, including ideological, religious, and nationalistic ones. This seems to be a more subjective method of describing the intent of terrorism as attempting to influence governmental policy and in that sense is superfluous. Moreover, the use of the term "political" risks invoking the "political offense exception" in extradition treaties.
Notably missing from this list of necessary elements are the perpetrators of terrorism. Including references to the actors in the definition of terrorism provokes debates over whether states can themselves be terrorists, whether terrorists must be clandestine groups, whether states can be responsible for terrorists when they are operating transnationally (and with greater resources than some states), whether a nominally law-abiding organization can be considered a terrorist group when it contains violent elements, and other controversial issues. Perhaps there now are simply too many different terrorists and terrorist organizations (see for instance the Naval Postgraduate School's Terrorist Group Profiles) to make this effort a judicious task. In that sense, the materials in JURIST's Terrorism and Terrorists page provide a provocative initiation for all of us.
Notes

1. See A.P. Schmid, Political Terrorism: A Research Guide to Concepts, Theories, Data Bases and Literature (1983)

2. International terrorism is usually defined simply as terrorism involving citizens or territory of more than one country.

3. Some laws may specifically focus on government personnel. See, for instance, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons (1973). This agreement protects senior government officials and diplomats.

4. The most recent, post-September 11 U.S. legislation adds "mass destruction" as a means.

Professor Donna Arzt
Director, Center for Global Law and Practice
Syracuse University College of Law

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