Terrorism offences

Many jurisdictions have recently expanded the scope of inchoate criminal liability in relation to terrorism by creating a range of new pre-emptive offences. This chapter presents a comparative analysis of these offences in the laws of the UK and Germany. It focuses on four groups of offences: offences of preparing terrorist acts, offences of encouraging terrorism, offences related to terrorist organisations, and terrorism-related possession offences. It concludes that, in the context of terrorism, both jurisdictions have departed significantly from the traditional principles of inchoate liability. However, the UK offences have been interpreted and applied in a particularly expansive way, and they are broader than the equivalent German offences in almost every material respect.