Prevention and Pre-emption in Australia’s Domestic Anti-terrorism Legislation

  • University of New South Wales, Sydney
     Australia

Abstract

The move towards prevention in domestic anti-terror law and policy was initially justified as an exceptional response to the exceptional threat of transnational terrorism following September 11, 2001. However, commonalities are discernable between prevention in anti-terror law and prevention as employed in other areas of Australian law. To begin contextualising and analysing preventive practices in Australia, a framework is required. ‘The preventive state’ provides one way to view the collection of preventive measures employed in Australia. Engaging a governmentality perspective has the potential to make visible prevention and pre-emption in law and governance, and to inform critical treatment of the preventive state itself. Whether and how prevention and pre-emption in anti-terror law differ from and exhibit continuities with other preventive measures has the potential to expose issues of selectivity and proportionality between preventive measures and force consideration of the limits of state action to prevent or pre-empt harm.

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Except where otherwise noted, content in this journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Published: 2012-11-05
Pages:52 to 64
Section:Articles
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How to Cite
Tulich, T. (2012) “Prevention and Pre-emption in Australia’s Domestic Anti-terrorism Legislation”, International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 1(1), pp. 52-64. doi: 10.5204/ijcjsd.v1i1.68.

Author Biography

University of New South Wales, Sydney
 Australia
PhD Candidate, Nettheim Doctoral Teaching Fellow, Faculty of Law