The definition of ‘terrorism’ under international law in relation to armed conflicts involving non-state actors

Abstract

The growing influence of violent non-state groups within the international realm for some time already has presented challenges for scholars, lawyers, and politicians. One of the most prominent technical challenges has been the defining of the legality of actions taken by violent non-state groups into an international legal framework, especially, when non-state groups are participants in an armed conflict. While there are no notable attempts in legally defining violent non-state groups as such, special attention has been given to terrorist groups and the definition of “terrorism” within international law. As a result of the unclear meaning of terrorism” among the international community, agreements with respect to a definition are hard to reach and have resulted in failed attempts. However, the failure to define terrorism does not diminish the importance of the necessity of a uniform definition. The non-existence of a uniform definition or the ambiguity of the definition raises a set of legal and practical issues within armed conflicts, which will be looked at in the context of this research. Thereafter, this research aims to look at the comprehensiveness of the existing definition of “terrorism” in an armed conflict and it aims to analyze whether a further development of the definition is really necessary to cover the existing legal gaps.