The Offence of Terrorist Financing; Why Does It Go Wrong?

Abstract

The international convention on terrorist financing and Western-backed international organisations have found the financing of terrorism serious enough to criminalise it as an independent offence. While the offence has a preparatory nature, its criminalisation as an independent offence expands the boundary of criminal liability beyond existing notions of criminalisation. This article examines the justifiability of the terrorist financing offence with regard to the principles and values on which liberal criminal law is based. Liberal criminal law has been chosen because the idea of the criminalisation of terrorist financing was issued and developed mainly by Western liberal States. The article narrowly discusses the issue in the context of Anglo-American criminal law.