What Price Security? Taking Stock of Australia's Anti-Terror Laws

In this timely and important book, Andrew Lynch and George Williams provide a clear and accessible guide to the major components of Australia's anti-terrorism laws and their effects. They show readers: what constitutes a crime of terrorism in Australia, what powers our main intelligence agency has to question and detain members of the community, what happens when the authorities seek a control order or an order of preventative detention over an individual, what speech risks making a person liable for the crime of sedition, how judicial processes have been modified for the trial of people charged with terrorism offences Lynch and Williams have contributed vigorously to the public debate since September 11. InWhat Price Security?they argue that Australia has gone too far in limiting civil rights in the name of anti-terrorism. "In fighting the 'war on terror'," they write, "it is vital that we do not allow ourselves to become the victim of our own fears."

Andrew Lynch is the Director of the Terrorism and Law Project at the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law and a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales.