The Friend-foe Dichotomy and Protecting Fundamental Rights under Terrorist Threat

摘要

This paper argues that global terrorist threat blurs the sharp dichotomy between the state of normality (“constitutionality”) and the state of exception, when the interest of preserving the political community and public order requires some temporary limitations of both fundamental rights and rule of law (“Rechtsstaat”) principles. Since the confrontation with the threat of international terrorism is of a different kind, policies aimed at preventing and abatement of such threats require a coherent framework of action and permanent measures on a daily basis. The dichotomy between normality and exceptional circumstances becomes less and less relevant, being gradually replaced by the antagonism between friends of the democratic order and its foes.