Criminal policy and Terrorism in the Kingdom of Spain: A New Era or a Déjà Vu?

Abstract

The signing of the «Agreement to strengthen unity in the defence of liberty and in the fight against terrorism» on the 2nd February 2015, together with Arnaldo Otegi’s release from prison on the 1st March 2016, after having served the sentence imposed by the National High Court (SAN 22/11 of 16 September 2011), are going to be the benchmarks used by this paper to explain the current criminal policy situation in Spain. On the basis of these facts, this paper tends to carry out an analysis that illustrates how the complexities related to the notion of terrorism operate nowadays, focussing not only on crime policies, but also on the social context. This paper starts with an analysis of the main objectives of crime policies on terrorism. After that, it addresses the answers given by criminal law to this situation. Likewise, the contextual difficulties and the epistemological nature of crime policies on terrorism will also be subject of reflection. Finally, to put an end to this text, a list of open question will be proposed in order to avoid excessively sharp arguments that might narrow the possibility of addressing the study of such a complex matter as terrorism from different perspectives.