Alongside the Project’s desk research, we have sought and interviewed a range of actors involved in the scrutiny and review of counter-terrorism law and policy. Originally, we aimed for 12-15 ‘elite’ participants. To date, we have completed 24 interviews, much exceeding our own expectations. Our surprising success prompted us to reflect on the process of … Continue reading “Counter-terrorism Review Research Interviews”
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When is Counter-Terrorism Reviewed?
In addition to the questions of who reviews counter-terrorism, what aspect of counter-terrorism do they review, and how do they review it, is also the question of timing: when do reviews of counter-terrorism take place, and why do they take place at that particular time? In some instances, the timing might appear obvious and necessary. … Continue reading “When is Counter-Terrorism Reviewed?”
Counter-Terrorism Review: What Role for Courts?
For many lawyers the word ‘review’ is closely connected with the work of courts, which may be what springs to mind when the term is used. Rather than focus on judicial review mechanisms, our project takes a much wider approach to counter-terrorism review, looking across a very wide range of actors and reviews in order … Continue reading “Counter-Terrorism Review: What Role for Courts?”
Job Vacancy: Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation
Today is Max Hill QC‘s last day as the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation. This evening, he steps down from his current role to take up his new appointment as Director for Public Prosecutions at the end of the month. Tomorrow, for the first time since Sir Cyril Philips was appointed in 1984 to undertake an … Continue reading “Job Vacancy: Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation”
CTR Project Workshop
Today, the Counter-terrorism Review project team are holding an invitation-only stakeholder workshop at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, where we will present our preliminary research findings. We hope the participants will use their diverse experience and expertise to identify flaws in our findings and to test our proposals for reform of counter-terrorism review in the … Continue reading “CTR Project Workshop”
Engaging Stakeholders in Understanding and Reforming Counter-Terrorism Review
So far in the project we have undertaken four major phases of research: we have mapped counter-terrorism in the UK (as discussed here), generated a sense of the scale of counter-terrorism review building from that mapping exercise (discussed here), attempted to identify gaps in counter-terrorism review (discussed here), and undertaken a large number of interviews … Continue reading “Engaging Stakeholders in Understanding and Reforming Counter-Terrorism Review”
Finding the ‘Gaps’ in Counter-Terrorism Review
How much counter-terrorism is reviewed, how often, and by whom? These are just some of the questions that the counter-terrorism review project seeks to answer. But one of the challenges we have faced so far is in trying to map the various mechanisms of counter-terrorism review that we identified in our initial research against what … Continue reading “Finding the ‘Gaps’ in Counter-Terrorism Review”
Politics, Accountability and Counter-Terrorism Review
In one of our very early posts here, we defined counter-terrorism review as “the retrospective consideration of counter-terrorism laws and measures to assess their lawfulness, propriety, impacts, effectiveness and appropriateness by reference to core principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law”. Here we noted specifically that review would be retrospective (as opposed … Continue reading “Politics, Accountability and Counter-Terrorism Review”
Home Office Refuses FOI Request on the Prevent Oversight Board
In April we submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Home Office about the Prevent Oversight Board. As we explained in our blog post at the time, the Board can be seen as an example of internal review and demonstrates how review can happen in layers and at different levels of opacity. As … Continue reading “Home Office Refuses FOI Request on the Prevent Oversight Board”
CONTEST: ‘world-leading’ oversight, scrutiny and transparency?
Earlier this month, the government published the most recent version of its counter-terrorism strategy CONTEST. The new CONTEST – published two years later than expected – was informed by the outcome of several reviews, including the National Security Capability Review, which was established shortly after the 2017 General Election to identify how to ‘develop, deliver … Continue reading “CONTEST: ‘world-leading’ oversight, scrutiny and transparency?”