Proscription of Organisations in UK Counter-Terrorism Law

Sofia Marques da Silva 

King's College London - School of Law

Cian C. Murphy 

King's College London - School of Law
October 8, 2012

Legal Aspects of EU Sanctions, Cameron, ed, Intersentia, 2012 
Abstract:      
The UK has a history of proscribing organisations in the name of national security – with Irish Republican organisations the most well known example. The Terrorism Act 2000 provided new powers of proscription. Since the attacks on September 11 2001 the focus of proscription has been on organisations related to Islamist extremism. This paper will examine the legal framework for the proscription of organisations in the UK and how it has been used. It will consider the process by which proscription is imposed and the means by which it can be challenged. The most common use of proscription today is against organisations that, though dangerous, do not necessarily pose a threat to UK national security. The paper argues that proscription can enshrine in criminal law foreign policy choices of the UK government so as to criminalise support for causes whose illegitimacy is, at the very least, open to contest.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 21

Keywords: counter-terrorism, proscription, September 11 2001, Terrorism Act 2000

Full text available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2064048