About My Research

Why counterterrorism and civil liberties?

It's a really good question, and the one I seem to get asked the most. For me there's two reasons as to why I chose counterterrorism and civil liberties. The first is the most recent of the two. Covid-19 saw the largest infringement on our civil liberties in living memory, for what was (unless you had access to a microscope) an invisible threat. Whilst I do not contend that the Government of the day had the best intentions with the idea of lockdown, and were simply following the international trend at the time, upon reflection their utilisation and the process in which they were exercised is concerning to say the least.

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The UK has a long tradition of upholding the fundamental liberties of the citizen, freedom of expression, freedom of association, and freedom from punishment without law. All of which were contravened under Coronavirus legislation. The case that comes to mind, is Derbyshire Police's fining of two women who went on a socially distanced walk, for "not abiding by the spirit of the national effort". Whilst this may seem like a tangent, I promise you it's not. It leads me to my main reasoning, if the state can be afforded powers to do this for a public health emergency, what could they do in the name of counterterrorism.

Secondly, on the case of counterterrorism, I have a strongly held belief that terrorism remains one of the greatest threats to the UK. Whilst we have moved past the days of The Troubles, there is still a strong presence from other terrorist groups associated with other ideologies. It is imperative that we continue to examine how we can counter these groups, whilst also considering whether the counterterrorism strategy we currently have is fit for purpose. Having a strategy that is fit for purpose is crucial in ensuring that we keep up with terrorist methods, which have diversified in recent years. It's also important that we have a strategy that respects the freedoms of the citizens, previously we have seen moves before from the Government towards more extreme counterterror proposals. Namely, the attempted extension of pre-trial detention without charge of terror suspects from 28 to 42 days by Tony Blair, who had already failed to secure a proposed extension to 90 days.