This customary rule requires the following three key elements: (i) the perpetration of a criminal act (such as murder, kidnapping, hostage-taking, arson, and so on), or threatening such an act (ii) the intent to spread fear among the population (which would generally entail the creation of public danger) or directly or indirectly coerce a national or international authority to take some action, or to refrain from taking it (iii) when the act involves a transnational element. This followed the somewhat controversial judgment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in 2011, which found that since at least 2005, a definition of "transnational terrorism" has existed within customary international law:Īs we shall see, a number of treaties, UN resolutions, and the legislative and judicial practice of States evince the formation of a general opinio juris in the international community, accompanied by a practice consistent with such opinio, to the effect that a customary rule of international law regarding the international crime of terrorism, at least in time of peace, has indeed emerged. Customary definition of terrorismĪlthough there is no current agreement regarding of a universal legal definition of the term, there has been some debate regarding the possible existence of an, at least partial, customary definition of terrorism.
There are a number of possible explanations for this, some of which are explored below in relation to ongoing efforts to agree on a Comprehensive Convention.
Before examining the meaning and associated concepts and principles of (international) criminal justice and international criminal law as they apply to terrorist crimes, it is first necessary to briefly examine some of the principal reasons for, and implications of, the absence of a universally agreed definition of terrorism, including how key institutional and State actors have approached criminal justice solutions in the absence of one.Īs was discussed in Module 1, the concept of "terror" is not a new one, having existed in different forms for centuries.
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