Philippines signs anti-torture law

President Gloria Arroyo has signed the anti-torture act of 2009 that prohibits the use of solitary confinement as well as secret detention places, blindfolding of suspects, and the use of electric shock treatment during interrogation.
The law, also known as Republic Act 9745, defines torture as an act wherein severe pain or suffering is intentionally inflicted [...]

British Journal of Criminology Special Issue on Criminology and the war on terror

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The Transformation of Violence in Iraq British Journal of Criminology Advance Access published on May 28, 2009 Br J Criminol 2009 49: 609-627; doi:10.1093/bjc/azp022 [Abstract]
 
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    Jude McCulloch and Sharon Pickering

Pre-Crime and Counter-Terrorism: Imagining Future Crime in the ‘War on Terror’ British Journal of Criminology [...]

Canadian government threatens tar sands activists with anti-terror laws

The provincial government in Alberta, Canada is threatening to unleash its counterterrorism plan if activists continue using civil disobedience to protest the tar sands, Canada’s fastest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Civil disobedience from Greenpeace, leading to 37 arrests, has enraged Alberta’s conservative government. Fred Lindsay, the solicitor general suggested the province might use its [...]

U.S. continues to support a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism

Statement by US legal counselor on counter-terrorism in UN GA 6th committee on 7 October.
Excerpt:
The United States continues to support a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that would strengthen this existing legal regime and reinforce the critical principle that no cause or grievance justifies terrorism in any form. We firmly believe that any successful resolution [...]

British victims of terror attacks abroad to receive payouts

The Guardian reports that the UK government plans to close legal loophole for future cases that caps compensation to a £15,000 award from a government-backed Red Cross emergency fund. The decision to give them the same kind of assistance as victims of the 7/7 bombings, bringing Britain into line with other major western countries, follows [...]

Chile to apply antiterrorism law to prosecute indigenous dissidents

[JURIST] Chilean Subsecretary of the Interior Patricio Rosende announced that Chile will use a 1984 antiterrorism lawto prosecute indigenous Mapuches for attacks allegedly committed in the southern region of Araucania. The Chilean government has declared that it will apply the measure to criminals regardless of their ethnicity, and that only a minority of Mapuches are [...]

Climate change activist stopped from travelling to Copenhagen on basis of terrorism law

UK border police used schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 to prevent a British climate change activist from crossing over into mainland Europe where he planned to take part in events surrounding the forthcoming United Nations summit in Denmark, the Guardian reports. The clause enables border officials to stop and search individuals to determine [...]

Senate committee approves reauthorization of expiring Patriot Act provisions, Supreme Court to review provisons

The US Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-8 at Thursday’s executive business meeting to approve legislation [S 1692] reauthorizing three provisions of the USA Patriot Act set to expire at the end of the year. The portions of the act to be renewed allow federal authorities to conduct “roving” wiretaps, compel the production of business, medical [...]

Pakistan amends anti-terror laws

The government of Pakistan has amended its anti-terrorism laws to increase the remand period for the interrogation of terror suspects from 30 to 90 days.
Correspondents say that the move is one of the conditions of a recent bill passed by the US Congress which triples non-military aid to Pakistan. The Kerry-Lugar bill provides an annual [...]

Intelligence community legal reference book

The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence has declassified its Intelligence Community Legal Reference Book from which the US intelligence community ‘draws much of its authority and guidance’. Download the 949 pages here.