Clive Walker, Blackstone's Guide to the Anti-Terrorism Legislation
| Author | |
| Pages | 111-112 |
| Published date | 01 January 2016 |
| Date | 01 January 2016 |
| DOI | 10.3366/elr.2016.0333 |
As Walker notes in the Preface to his
A great strength of this book is the clarity it provides to a series of laws that are often convoluted. As anyone who has tried to grapple with this area will know well, since 2000 the trend has not only been towards more legislation, but also towards longer and more complex legislation. Each chapter provides a clear critical exposition of the key provisions, illustrated with reference to case-law, followed by an assessment which draws upon academic and official commentaries. The assessment includes reference to the actual use of the powers, often with helpful statistical tables, and international comparisons where relevant, although the focus is, naturally, on the UK legislation.
In the introductory chapter, Walker provides a brief overview of the concept of terrorism and the Government's counter-terrorist strategy as set out in CONTEST (Cmnd 6888: 2006) before analysing the legal definition of terrorism and the function of anti-terrorist legislation. Chapter 2 examines the law against extremist organisations and speech contained in Part II of the Terrorism Act 2000 and the Terrorism Act 2006. Chapter 3 looks at terrorist funding and property, primarily with reference to Part III of the Terrorism Act 2000 and the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001, alongside discussion of the UN and EU sanctions regimes. Chapter 4 deals with terrorist investigations, including cordons and the compulsory obtaining of testimony and evidence such as the controversial offence of withholding information that may be of material assistance in preventing the commission of an act of terrorism (Terrorism Act 2000, s 38B). Chapter 5 turns to the operation of counter-terrorist powers...
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