Terrorism, Lawmaking, and Democratic Politics: Legislators as Security Actors

Counterterrorist law is all too often made in a rushed, reactive, and repetitious way, marginalizing the deliberative, critical, and democratic functions of legislatures and leading to outcomes that later prove to be unconstitutional and counter-productive for public security. Using a political sociology approach, the article offers an analysis and theorisation of the practice of counterterrorist lawmaking. Through the UK example, the article argues that counterterrorist lawmaking compounds the existing unequal power relationships of the parliamentary field, and presents legislators with an inscrutable dilemma about the true stakes involved in legislative security politics.