Enemies of the State and Miscarriages of Justice

Abstract

Miscarriages of justice are exceptionally prevalent, acute and most often irredeemable when the subject is ‘an enemy of the state’. Nowadays, these subjects usually take the guise of ‘terrorists’ or other variants of ‘extremists’, and the impacts of the miscarriages upon them can be extreme, including the death penalty. Evidence will be provided for this premise mainly from the United Kingdom, but with further examples from other jurisdictions. Reasons for this correlation will be considered. One response is to demand the observance of fundamental rights within the justice process even in times of crisis and threat. In fact, states frequently adopt processes, which diminish normal safeguards and checks against wrongful conviction in such cases. Therefore, given the predilection of states to dilute due process in terrorist/extremist cases, a more practicable remedy might be to concentrate on post-conviction review mechanisms.

Keywords: Terrorism; Miscarriages of Justice

JEL Classification: K10, K14, K33, K19, K30, K33, K42, N40