Cyber terrorism challenges: The need for a global response to a multi-jurisdictional crime

With the widespread concerns about cyber terrorism and the frequent use of the term “cyber terrorism” at the present time, many international organisations have made efforts to combat this threat. Since cyber terrorism is an international crime, local regulations alone are not able to defend against such attacks; they require a transnational response. Therefore, an attacked country will invoke international law to seek justice for any damage caused, through the exercise of universal jurisdiction. Without the aid of international organisations, it is difficult to prevent cyber terrorism. At the same time, international organisations determine which state court, or international court, has the authority to settle a dispute. The objective of this paper is to analyse and review the effectiveness and sufficiency of the current global responses to cyber terrorism through the exercise of international jurisdiction. This article also touches upon the notion of cyber terrorism as a transnational crime and an international threat; thus, national regulations alone cannot prevent it. The need for an international organisation to prevent and defend nations from cyber terrorism attacks is pressing. This paper finds that, as cyber terrorism is a transnational crime, it should be subjected to universal jurisdiction through multinational cooperation, and this would be the most suitable method to counter future transnational crimes such as cyber terrorism.     

The Universal Terrorist: The International Community Grappling with a Definition

Steps have been taken on the international level towards determininga widely acceptable definition of terrorism as a basis for internationalconventions. One basic distinction in this context is betweenstate-sponsored ‘official’ terrorism and individualterrorism directed against those in power. With respect to ‘individual’terrorism, a widely accepted definition refers to acts or threatsof violence committed with the intention to intimidate a populationin furtherance of some non-economic goal. The old problem ofdistinguishing terrorists from legitimate freedom fighters hasbeen alleviated but not yet totally resolved. Another issueconcerns the question of whether to exempt actions of and/ordirected against armed forces from the definition of terrorism.Overbreadth rather than vagueness is a problem of many currentdefinitions of terrorism: since they include as ‘baseoffences’ less serious violations of individual or communalinterests and even the mere intention or threat to commit them,they fail to reserve the stigma of terrorism to those offencesthat truly threaten the social fabric.     

略论反恐多边条约的国内实施

国际恐怖(主义)犯罪是目前日炽的一种国际犯罪,国际社会非常重视对恐怖(主义)犯罪的惩治、预防和打击,缔结了一系列反恐多边条约。反恐多边条约的实施主要是缔约国的实施(即国内层面上的实施),可以分为直接实施和间接实施两种模式。反恐多边条约的国内实施于惩治和预防国际恐怖主义犯罪发挥了重要作用。反恐多边条约在我国得到了很好的实施,但在实施过程中仍存在某些弊端或不足,亟须完善,关键是要尽快制定一部专门的反恐特别法。     

The Duty to Bring Terrorists to Justice and Discretionary Prosecution

In Res. 1373 (2001), the Security Council laid down the dutyto bring terrorists to justice and to deny them safe haven.Whereas such duty expressed a clear political imperative inthe aftermath of 11 September 2001, it is less clear how nationalauthorities are supposed to translate it into a set of enforceablelegal obligations. If it is interpreted as ‘obliging’states to prosecute and try terrorists, as the Security CouncilCounter Terrorism Committee seems to suggest, the power of prosecutorsto decide whether or not to bring a case to court may be severelyimpaired. An unconditional obligation to bring terrorists tocourt would not necessarily strengthen states’ judicialresponse to the threat of international terrorism. A sensibleexercise of prosecutorial discretion may be instrumental inarticulating a flexible and more effective response in variouscircumstances. Moreover, a rigid interpretation of the requirementto bring terrorists to justice does not find support in SecurityCouncil and General Assembly resolutions on terrorism. Far frommandating that alleged offenders be unconditionally broughtto trial, the universal counter-terrorism conventions and protocolslimit themselves to requiring that the jurisdiction of nationalcourts be established, which is conceptually different fromimposing its actual exercise.     

White-collar delinquency

Seemingly harmless pranks by computer hackers have evolved into major economic crimes and acts of terrorism that appear far different than traditional forms of juvenile delinquency. Nonetheless, because they do not occupy the high status positions that facilitate white-collar crimes, serious computer crimes by juveniles have fallen between the theoretical cracks. A new hybrid category of crime that we label “white-collar delinquency” demonstrates that class does matter in the way illegal activity is conceptualized, and re-ignites debates regarding both white-collar crime and juvenile delinquency. We review conceptual issues that relate to this emergent form of computer-based deviance, and identify questions to be addressed in future theorizing and research. The authors wish to thank Gilbert Geis for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

国际恐怖主义与国家自卫

国际恐怖主义的共同特征是 :行为关涉两个或两个以上国家 ;目标具有明确政治性 ,指向外国国家 ;主体多元 ,既有个人也有国家。国际恐怖主义属国际犯罪。国家对国际恐怖主义可以行使自卫 ,但必须有充分理由证明国际恐怖主义是由一个国家实施的或在国家支持下进行的。美国对阿富汗的军事行动可认为是自卫。     

The Subject-Matter Jurisdiction of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) represents a sui generisinternational tribunal on various levels. It is the first timea treaty-based Tribunal has been established through a resolutionof the Security Council adopted under Chapter VII. A furtherunique feature is its sole dependence on domestic substantivecrimes. The attempt to include crimes against humanity in theStatute did not succeed, despite the fact that the elementsof a crime against humanity seem to be discernable in the conductthat falls within the jurisdiction of the STL. References tointernational and regional terrorism instruments, such as theArab Convention for the Suppression of Terrorism, were alsoabandoned. The Tribunal will rely on Lebanese criminal provisionsregarding terrorism, illicit associations, crimes and offencesagainst life and personal integrity. Lebanese law provides anold but concrete definition of terrorism. This raises the questionof whether the Lebanese definition, with its strengths and weaknesses,could assist in the evolution of a well-structured definitionof international terrorism. The possibility of ‘internationalizing’the Lebanese definition will depend on two factors: the judges’approach in adopting the Tribunal's rules of evidence and procedure,and then more importantly their creativity in developing thejurisprudence of the Tribunal.     

The Legal Status of Three Sino-US Joint Communiques

Many would agree that the Sino–US relations are one ofthe most important bilateral relations in the world today, andthe three communiqués signed by the two governments arethe most significant agreements signed so far in managing theirrelationship. This article attempts to examine these joint communiquésagainst their contents and historical backgrounds, and triesto discern their legal status under both international law andUS domestic law. It concludes that they bear features of treatiesunder international law and should be regarded as legally bindinginstruments on the international plane, and that their statusunder US law seems ambiguous in the absence of any court rulingsup to date.     

Looking at terrorism through left realist lenses

While terrorism has moved into the spotlight of criminological study, including critical criminology, it has yet to be thoroughly explored from a left realist perspective. Left realism addresses four aspects of crime: causes of offending, impact on the victims, and both official and public responses to crime. A left realist approach to terrorism would argue that similar to those who engage in street crimes, many terrorists are socially or economically disenfranchised young men who become involved in terrorism through connections with similarly situated members of the fringe population, and “get tough” policies on terrorism will backfire. Four propositions of left realist theory organized by DeKeseredy and colleagues are presented and addressed through the extant literature, which offers partial support for a left realist explanation of terrorism.     

The Impact of Technology and Communications upon International and Transnational Terrorism

The purpose of this inquiry is to examine the nature of terrorism, primarily in European and Western industrial nations. Specifically the article (1) examines the impact that has resulted from technological advances in communication and weapons and (2) discusses the necessity of international cooperation in the effort to defeat terrorism. The article documents that terrorism is a serious threat to Western democracies including the United States as well as an international threat. The conclusion of the article is that it has become more difficult to counter terrorism due to technological advances which have delivered greater destructive power into the hands of a few fanatics. The primary technological effects discussed are (1) those relating to communication which has enabled terrorists to establish a “world-wide network” and (2) the addition of toxins and nuclear weapons to the arsenal of the terrorist. As an international problem, however, the difficulty of countering terrorism is not rooted in the technological sophistication of the terrorist but in international disputes about the question, “what is terrorism”. Nations appear to be unable to mount an international assault against terrorism due to the great difficulty of arriving at a commonly accepted definition of terrorism. This article discusses the obstacles to defining terrorism encountered by the international community and the role that bilateral and multinational agreements have played in countering terrorism.     

The War on Terrorism: When the Exception Becomes the Rule

This article argues that the semiotics of the war on terrorism points at a significant shift in United States' discourses on security. This shift can best be described as a move from defence to prevention or from danger to risk. Whereas the notion of defence is closely connected to the state of war, this article claims that the war on terrorism instead institutionalises a permanent state of exception. Building upon Agamben's notion that the state of exception is the non-localisable foundation of a political order, this article makes two claims. First, it argues that semiotic shifts in United States' security politics point at a general trend that, to some extent, structures international American interventions. In a sense, the semiotic shifts in American security discourse declare the United States as the sovereign of the global order: they allow the United States to exempt itself from the (international) framework of law, while demanding compliance by others. Second, it claims that this production of American sovereignty is paralleled by reducing the life of (some) individuals to the bare life of homo sacer(life that can be killed without punishment). In the war on terrorism, the production of bare life is mainly brought about by bureaucratic techniques of risk management and surveillance, which reduce human life to biographic risk profiles.     

International terrorism and mental health: recent research and future directions

International terrorism has become a major global concern. Several studies conducted in North America and Europe in the aftermath of terrorist attacks reveal that international terrorism represents a significant short-term and long-term threat to mental health. In the present article, the authors clarify the concept and categories of terrorism and then present central findings from studies conducted in the United States and Europe, which mainly focus on negative impacts on mental health, such as emotional stress and PTSD. Furthermore, the authors outline experiments that focus on social interaction processes thought to be triggered by international terrorism and which are assumed to be related indirectly to mental health processes. Next, they highlight the potential positive outcomes on the resilience side, in line with the current theory on posttraumatic growth in adversity. Finally, theoretical and practical implications as well as limitations and future directions are discussed.     

American Terrorism and Extremist Crime Data Sources and Selectivity Bias: An Investigation Focusing on Homicide Events Committed by Far-Right Extremists

This paper examines the reliability of the methods used to capture homicide events committed by far-right extremists in a number of open source terrorism data sources. Although the number of research studies that use open source data to examine terrorism has grown dramatically in the last 10 years, there has yet to be a study that examines issues related to selectivity bias. After reviewing limitations of existing terrorism studies and the major sources of data on terrorism and violent extremist criminal activity, we compare the estimates of these homicide events from 10 sources used to create the United States Extremist Crime Database (ECDB). We document incidents that sources either incorrectly exclude or include based upon their inclusion criteria. We use a “catchment-re-catchment” analysis and find that the inclusion of additional sources result in decreasing numbers of target events not identified in previous sources and a steadily increasing number of events that were identified in any of the previous data sources. This finding indicates that collectively the sources are approaching capturing the universe of eligible events. Next, we assess the effects of procedural differences on these estimates. We find considerable variation in the number of events captured by sources. Sources include some events that are contrary to their inclusion criteria and exclude others that meet their criteria. Importantly, though, the attributes of victim, suspect, and incident characteristics are generally similar across data source. This finding supports the notion that scholars using open-source data are using data that is representative of the larger universe they are interested in. The implications for terrorism and open source research are discussed.     

The perspective of “justice” of international law in the global context

After the Cold War and the quick development of globalization, non-state acts by international organizations, transnational corporations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), etc., are becoming more active. Global issues with regard to, inter alia, environment, human rights, terrorism are constantly emerging, which bring great challenge to the Westphalia System that is based on state sovereignty and centered on the national state. At the same time, the values, which include “individualism” and “global justice,” are constantly casting impact on international legal system. Doubtlessly, in the current context of international relations, “justice among states” is still the reasonable positioning of the value of modern international law. However, making “individualism” and “global justice” compatible and modifying “justice among states” is an inevitable trend. At the same time, the rule brought about by the modification on the value of justice must be handled properly.     

武力打击国际恐怖主义的合法性问题

武力打击国际恐怖主义的合法性问题关系到国际法律秩序的前途与联合国集体安全体制的命运。通过对美国武力反恐政策与实践在国际法学界引发的争议、国际法上自卫权规则和安理会授权武力强制措施的适用性、国际恐怖主义泛滥对自卫权理论和规则的发展方向的影响 ,以及联合国在武力反恐中的作用等问题的分析 ,我们可以看到 ,虽然现有国际法理论和规则并不完全支持武力反恐 ,但是完全排除受害国使用武力反恐既不合理也不可行。为了既有效打击恐怖主义又不滥用武力 ,现行国际法和联合国体制都需要改革 ,以建立一个由和平措施和武力措施共同构成的反恐机制。     

论国际恐怖主义的全球化趋势与国际法律控制

当前国际恐怖主义呈现出强劲的全球化发展趋势 ,而现行国际反恐法制治标不治本、规则取向不足、条约的巴尔干式、反恐措施单一、国际合作欠深入等弱点都亟待克服。只有全面构建和完善国际反恐法制 ,在断定和惩治国际恐怖主义方面具有更多的规则取向 ,并加强联合国在国际反恐斗争中的主导和协调作用 ,国际恐怖主义犯罪才会得到有效控制。而要彻底根除国际恐怖主义 ,必须建立国际政治、经济和文化新秩序。     

Venturing into uncharted financial waters: an essay on climate-friendly finance

This paper explores links between global financial imbalances and tensions around reserve currency along with climate change. Currently, risky levels of private and public debts coexist with vast amounts of savings that “do not know where to go.” Long-term climate-oriented financial products could enhance investors’ confidence in low-carbon projects (LCP) and channel to them large amounts of private savings. The paper outlines a financial architecture, the cornerstone of which is an agreement on the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) integrated into a project’s appraisal and acting as a surrogate for a carbon price. This SCC would be the value of carbon certificates issued by the government and delivered to banks to issue credit facilities reducing the risk-adjusted costs of LCPs. These carbon certificates could be gradually transformed into legal reserve assets of the banks after verification of the reality of the projects. Finally, the paper considers whether such certificates would be recognized as genuine international reserve assets, backed by the rising value of carbon over time. It shows how emerging countries could then diversify their foreign exchange reserves through an asset based on the international recognition of climate as a global public good.     

International Political Terrorism A Challenge for Comparative Research

International political terrorism poses special problems for researchers because of the kind of phenomenon it is. Being international, it occurs in many different sociopolitical and cultural contexts; and, being political, it has direct relevance to practical issues, most notably prevention and control. Comparative, interdisciplinary research which can bridge the gap between theory and practice is essential in dealing with the phenomenon. This paper looks at the special problems which international political terrorism poses for research. Problems related to defining the research problem, conducting the research, and applying the research findings are discussed in turn. Issues discussed include the role of the researcher, the definition of terrorism, data collection and information exchange, self-fulfilling prophecies, and generalizability of results.

A list of specific research strategies and topics pertinent to the study of international political terrorism is given to show the kinds of methods and models which researchers can be expected to encounter. Finally, in recognition of the fact that many research projects on international political terrorism will be funded by agencies interested in prevention and control, a specific section is devoted to analyzing different prevention and control strategies. Three conceptual models are examined: the war model, the criminal justice model, and the communications model. While all three generate fruitful avenues for research, the war model has been the most successful and the most widely applied, the criminal justice model has been the least successful, and the communications model has been the least applied. This condition reflects a narrow focus on short-term, incident-oriented, reactive strategies as opposed to long-term, preventive strategies focused on root causes. It is suggested that a comparative, interdisciplinary approach could generate fruitful new avenues within the communications model and a broader and potentially more profound understanding of the phenomenon of international political terrorism.     

Alcohol Consumption and Females’ Recognition in Response to Date Rape Risk: The Role of Sex-Related Alcohol Expectancies

This study examined the pharmacological and psychological effects of alcohol on women’s recognition of and response to dating sexual aggression. Female participants completed measures of prior sexual victimization experiences, sex related alcohol expectancies, general alcohol expectancies, and drinking habits. Using a 2 (alcohol) × 2 (expectancy) balanced placebo research design, women were exposed to an audiotape date rape vignette and asked to press a button when the man’s sexual advances had gone to far. Upon pressing the button, the tape was stopped and participants were instructed to imagine themselves in the same situation and generate a response describing what they would say and/or do at that point. Results indicated that although alcohol and expectancy were not related to risk perception, individuals who consumed alcohol displayed significantly less resistant role play refusals. A significant interaction between expectancy set and pre-existing sex-related alcohol expectancies was observed indicating participants believing alcohol affects sexual behavior generated less resistant refusal responses when they expected to receive alcohol. Moreover, for those who expected to receive alcohol, stronger pre-existing sex-related alcohol expectancies predicted less resistant refusal responses over above the effects of blood alcohol level and general alcohol expectancies. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Neither Here Nor There: Temporary Admission to the UK

This article considers the lacunae in international and Europeanlaw for the protection of those who do not, or do not yet, havetheir refugee status recognised, or whose claim for asylum hasbeen refused. It examines the position of such people in theUK, where they are ‘temporarily admitted’ underprovisions of the general immigration legislation. This meansthat although their physical presence is recognised and notunlawful, they are legally considered not to have entered thecountry. Whilst historically this was a favourable positionthat might itself often lead to naturalisation, the legal positionof those on temporary admission has changed rapidly and drasticallyover the past decade as rights to work and to social securityhave been withdrawn and a programme of mass detention instigated.These developments have in turn led to attempts by those ontemporary admission to use international and European law toattain or reinstate rights and to resist removal. This articleexamines the changes to UK law and policy since the first primarylegislation dealing with asylum in 1993, in the light of internationaland European law, and suggests that they will lead a new categoryof undocumented sans-papiers in the UK.