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Balancing Security and Liberty

Stuart Macdonald Orcid Logo

Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Terrorism Law

Swansea University Author: Stuart Macdonald Orcid Logo

Abstract

This entry examines the notion that the central task in counter-terrorism law and policy is to balance the competing demands of security and liberty. It begins by detailing two attempts to conceptualize this notion of balance: Richard Posner’s metaphorical set of scales; and, the security-liberty fr...

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Published in: Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Terrorism Law
Published: Edward Elgar Publishing
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71763
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last_indexed 2026-04-21T07:36:21Z
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spelling 2026-04-20T11:23:00.7624118 v2 71763 2026-04-20 Balancing Security and Liberty 933e714a4cc37c3ac12d4edc277f8f98 0000-0002-7483-9023 Stuart Macdonald Stuart Macdonald true false 2026-04-20 HRCL This entry examines the notion that the central task in counter-terrorism law and policy is to balance the competing demands of security and liberty. It begins by detailing two attempts to conceptualize this notion of balance: Richard Posner’s metaphorical set of scales; and, the security-liberty frontier advanced by Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule. The entry then outlines various criticisms of the balancing discourse, including: its oversimplification of the relationship between security and liberty; its relativistic, consequentialist approach; and its failure to engage with questions regarding resource allocation, the distribution of proposed changes in security and liberty and the meaning and demands of each of these values. Book chapter Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Terrorism Law Edward Elgar Publishing counter-terrorism; security; liberty; human rights; balance; policy 0 0 0 0001-01-01 COLLEGE NANME Hillary Rodham Clinton Law School COLLEGE CODE HRCL Swansea University Not Required 2026-04-20T11:23:00.7624118 2026-04-20T11:20:46.6239980 Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law Stuart Macdonald 0000-0002-7483-9023 1
title Balancing Security and Liberty
spellingShingle Balancing Security and Liberty
Stuart Macdonald
title_short Balancing Security and Liberty
title_full Balancing Security and Liberty
title_fullStr Balancing Security and Liberty
title_full_unstemmed Balancing Security and Liberty
title_sort Balancing Security and Liberty
author_id_str_mv 933e714a4cc37c3ac12d4edc277f8f98
author_id_fullname_str_mv 933e714a4cc37c3ac12d4edc277f8f98_***_Stuart Macdonald
author Stuart Macdonald
author2 Stuart Macdonald
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container_title Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Terrorism Law
institution Swansea University
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college_str Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law
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hierarchy_top_title Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law
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hierarchy_parent_title Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law
department_str Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law{{{_:::_}}}Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law{{{_:::_}}}Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law
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description This entry examines the notion that the central task in counter-terrorism law and policy is to balance the competing demands of security and liberty. It begins by detailing two attempts to conceptualize this notion of balance: Richard Posner’s metaphorical set of scales; and, the security-liberty frontier advanced by Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule. The entry then outlines various criticisms of the balancing discourse, including: its oversimplification of the relationship between security and liberty; its relativistic, consequentialist approach; and its failure to engage with questions regarding resource allocation, the distribution of proposed changes in security and liberty and the meaning and demands of each of these values.
published_date 0001-01-01T08:36:21Z
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score 11.443309

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