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Terrorism, Risk, and Legislation
dangerous or particularly low. However, international and national terrorism
alike may also be conceived as “crimes against democracy” thus
highlighting a particular aspect of in particular international terrorism that
hits so called soft targets and with that undermines the very basis of a
democratic society (see Saul, 2003, pp. 330-333, who also points to the
possibility to conceive terrorist offences as crimes against international
relations).
Protecting vulnerable infrastructure of societies
What can be also observed in legislation following 9/11 is a trend towards
extending the definition of terrorist crimes to such acts which involve
sabotage of sensitive and highly vulnerable social systems (e.g. information
networks, health systems). With that, for example cybercrime (hacking,
computer sabotage) in principle is included in the range of terrorist
activities. Expanding terrorist offence statutes to such areas carries of course
the risk to include also behaviour which does not belong to the high profile
acts that are evidently imagined when looking at the protection of sensitive
infrastructures and therefore should not be eligible for the high minimum
and maximum penalties coming with the terrorism label (see 50 Jahre Haft
für den PC-Kidnapper Spiegel Online - 04. November 2005).
Legislation by catalogues
Finally, there is a certain trend towards a type of legislation which has
parallels in drug laws. The definition of terrorist groups in a range of
countries is done through catalogues or lists which are annexed to antiterrorist
laws and that are set up by Ministries of the Interior or Ministries of
Justice, however, without participation of the Parliament (Walker, 1992, pp.
47; Walker, 2000, pp. 14). Other countries decided not to introduce such
catalogues but to leave the definition of terrorist and terrorism to the judicial
system when interpreting criminal statutes and offence characteristics. But,
the European Union policies as outlined above provide for this technique
and with that also for a risky automatism in the definition of (international)
terrorism. It is here, where control through parliaments and control through
the judiciary become marginal as it is in fact the executive power that makes
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