Terrorism and the Law

Terrorism is a very important topic for politicians, lawyers, criminologists, and economists at the present time, but also for common people. It is one of the most serious felonies. The University of Public Administration and International Relations, Prague (VŠVSMV) can offer various fields and specialisations which can tract view problems of terror from various perspectives. Therefore, it held an international conference entitled “Terrorism and the Law” in the English language on March 11, 2006, a rather symbolic date, and its Proceedings can help the reader to find answers to some hot questions in interdisciplinary research. All participants agreed that it is not clear what exactly terrorism is, and that is why in the introductory paper were mentioned two general types of terrorism: “traditional“, generally criminal (usually done in the interests of private persons) and “political“, and also why one of the themes was focused on the concept of terrorism as such and its legal regulation in international law – in the Draft UN agreement on anti-terrorism. It is also very important to focus on the role of terror in present international relations and the impact on its theories, which was another view of the concept of terrorism. The concept of terrorism can be treated differently in different territories of the Middle East – for example, how is it treated by a speaker from Lebanon? The impact of the fight against terrorism on the law – possible limits to basic constitutional rights and freedoms in American law – was another view on the topic presented by the American professor Michael P. Seng on constitutional law. But considerations of the challenge to basic human rights and freedoms in Member States of the EU can also be seen on the European political scene with a different kind of problem – European arrest warrants, and extradition of a national to a foreign country. In the end we are coming back to the beginning - terrorism from the point of criminal law and criminology, esp. with the laundered money which is obtained from terrorism and at the same time is used for the future terrorist acts.