Is Terrorism an International Crime?

Abstract

Lately, we are witnessing an attempt to define terrorism and sanction it proactively. Unfortunately, the interest of international bodies is limited to the condemnation of the acts of terrorism and, at most, to the provision of obligations upon the states to cooperate with each other in order to investigate such crimes, avoiding any mention of an individual criminal liability in international law. The lack of a general definition of terrorist offences could have consequences for the international cooperation in criminal matters in this area. Terrorist offences are international crimes and their perpetration could lead to criminal liability for crimes against humanity before an international jurisdiction, be it the International Criminal Court or an International Court against Terrorism.