Terrorism, protest and the law (in a maritime context)

Abstract

Characterisations of terrorism in international conventions and domestic law sometimes seem to obscure the distinction between terrorism and certain kinds of protest activity, which may, in turn, be characterised as either licit or illicit. In this paper the issues are illustrated in the context of nuclear terrorism and in a maritime environment. Some observations on the concept of civil disobedience and some suggestions for a code of behaviour in the maritime context are also made.