Prosecuting Extremism: why choices of criminal law, war, or terrorism matter Event

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2025-03-05 13:00:00

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Speaker: Lucia Zedner, Senior Research Fellow in Law at All Souls College and Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford, Fellow of the British Academy, Conjoint Professor in the Law Faculty, UNSW Sydney and Overseas Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law.

Title: ‘Prosecuting Extremism: why choices of criminal law, war, or terrorism matter’

Abstract: When and why do states define and prosecute harmful conduct as criminal, and when as war or terror? What political and instrumental considerations inform these choices? And how and why do they change over time, and with what outcomes? The pressure to avert future atrocities not only informs preventive laws and measures but increasingly impels states to identify and tackle extremist ideologies ‘further up the field’. There is no internationally agreed legal definition of extremism and whereas most countries target ‘violent extremism’, violence is notably absent from the UK definition. Eluding law, extremism is prosecuted in the UK not through courts or military tribunals but on our streets, in our communities, and online. Exploring the UK’s struggle to define and tackle the growing threat posed by extremism, reveals difficult challenges for democracy, rights and the rule of law.
Professor Lucia Zedner is author or co-editor of 11 books including Privatising Border Control (2022), Changing Contours of Criminal Justice (2016), Preventive Justice (2014), Security (2009) and Criminal Justice (2004). She is currently a Commissioner on a UK Independent Commission on UK Counter-Terrorism.