European Court Rules Actions by Armed Forces During Conflict May be Considered Terrorist Acts Under EU Law (March 14, 2017) [1]
On March 14, 2017, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled [3] in A, B, C, D v. van Buitenlandse Zaken that acts of armed forces during armed conflict governed by international humanitarian law may be considered terrorist acts for purposes of EU law. The case arose after Dutch authorities froze the assets of four individuals due to their ties to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)—which the Netherlands had concluded was a terrorist organization—while implementing Resolution 1373 [4] of the UN Security Council aimed at preventing the financing of terrorist acts. According to the press release [5], A and the others argued that the LTTE did not commit terrorist acts because the LTTE was “a non-State armed force engaged in a non-international armed conflict in Sri Lanka” whose “activities were governed only by international humanitarian law and not by the EU and international rules.” The Court held “that customary international law does not prevent actions by armed forces during periods of armed conflict from constituting ‘terrorist acts’” and emphasized “that international humanitarian law pursues different aims from EU law.”