Preventing Terrorism with Precaution: An Examination of the Precautionary Principle to Counter-Terrorism Measures

Since the core elements of precautionary principle in the field of environment protection and of preventive counter-terrorism are highly corresponded, it is of necessity and possibility to apply the precautionary principle to preventive counter-terrorism in theory and practice. Due to the imperfection of the precautionary principle and the complexity of the risk of terrorist attack, the application of the precautionary principle to preventive counter-terrorism is not mature in theory and is quite difficult in practice. However, it is of great significance and has enough research space to explore. The determination of risk threshold is the most critical part and the biggest difficulty in applying the precautionary principle to preventive anti-terrorism. It should adhere to the guidance of "problemoriented", "dynamic thinking" and "multi-dimensional exploration". This paper proposes that the specific methods of applying the precautionary principle to the field of preventive counter-terrorism, can be specifically designed in combination with the main methods in the three stages of preventive counter-terrorism. The first stage is to set the risk threshold for the "preemptive military attack"; in the second stage is to avoid the distortion and abuse of preventive legislation and law enforcement; while in the third stage is to effectively strengthen the "assessment" function of government’s functional departments and scientifically accurately assess the possibility and danger of "extremism" becoming terrorism in order to implement effective interventions. China's preventive anti-terrorism efforts are in processing. They have three key tasks: to explore the establishment of a system to regularly announce the identification of terrorist organizations and terrorists; to further promote and guide social units to participate in preventive counter-terrorism governance; to encourage internet companies to actively fulfill their obligation to participate in preventive anti-terrorism.