LAW ENFORCEMENT PARADIGMS

Law Enforcement Paradigms

Name of the writer

Name of the institution

Law Enforcement Paradigms

Traditionally, international terrorism has been perceived by domestic and international law as a criminal offense, and the methods used to fight it have been comparable to those that are used against any other criminal activity - interrogation, indictment and incarceration.

The recent intensification of terrorism and the threats posed by it have led to a transformation of the traditional paradigm that aims at empowering governments with better and more efficient enforcement measures, even at the cost of restricting some human rights. Some changes in the Law Enforcement Paradigm have already been implemented in the UK, France, Spain, Canada, Australia, Israel, India and the US:

* Extending administrative detention periods of terror-suspects without requiring legal oversight or indictments. * Limiting terror suspects' right to legal representation.

* Labeling as confidential the materials gathered in investigations against terror suspects, thus limiting access to it.

* Relying on evidence that would otherwise have been inadmissible in normal legal procedures, and transferring terrorism cases to special courts or tribunals for trial.

In other countries (including Israel), governments have also taken measures to restrict the movement of terror suspects, to use irregular interrogation methods and to inflict collective punishment (such as the destruction of homes or the expulsion of family members of terrorists) in order to fight terrorism more effectively.

The main article regulating the legality of irregular enforcement measures from an international legal perspective is Article 4 of The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), which Israel joined in 1991. According to this article, nations may deviate from their obligation to uphold human rights in extreme states of emergency. Nonetheless, any such derogation must be "strictly required" (and according to the widely accepted interpretation, also proportionate), nondiscriminatory and in line with other internationally ...