Dr Jessie Blackbourn (Durham Law School) will be presenting her research "Sentencing Terrorism in England and Wales" on Thursday the 27th of February from 12:30-2pm in S2.09 (in person and online)

Abstract: 

Terrorism prosecutions increased significantly after September 11, 2001, when many nations introduced preventive anti-terror laws. However, little is known about the impact of terrorist offences on traditional sentencing principles and practices, or the use of post-sentence preventive detention and supervision regimes for terrorist offenders. This paper is part of a broader project that aims to rectify this deficit by generating the first international comparative account of terrorist sentencing provisions, identifying the new questions and challenges terrorism sentencing poses for governments (and the international community) in the third decade after September 11. In this paper I will briefly outline the contours of the broader project, setting out the comparative methodological approach adopted, before discussing aspects of the England and Wales case study that highlight some of the exceptionality of terrorism sentencing in contrast to the sentencing of ‘ordinary’ or non-terrorism crimes.