Contemporary Terrorism as a Global Security Challenge and the Role of Criminal Law

Abstract

For decades, terrorism has been an area of ​​significant interest of academics from different fields of research. However, until the end of the twentieth century, the terrorism wasn’t observed as a global threat. The terrorist attacks of the early 21st century in modern sociological and criminological literature are referred to as a milestone in the development of the phenomenon of terrorist crime. The post-modern or contemporary terrorism, by its essence, scale and phenomenology, significantly differs from classical and modern forms of this criminal phenomenon. The authors discuss conceptual definitions of terrorism and identify key elements for defining this phenomenon. The authors also indicate the specific characteristics of the contemporary (post-modern) terrorism, and then analyze the role of criminal legislation, focusing on the Serbian criminal legislation and the most important acts of international law in this area. The main question is whether the Serbian legal framework contains adequate legal instruments for fighting contemporary terrorism.