The Changing Landscape of European Liberty and Security: Mid-Term Report on the Results of the CHALLENGE Project. CEPS CHALLENGE Paper, No. 4, 14 February 2007

The CHALLENGE project responds to widespread concerns about the resort to specific illiberal practices by contemporary liberal regimes. These practices are linked with the identification of increasing insecurities globally, insecurities that are widely interpreted as obliging sterner policies from the authorities and, consequently, new constraints on principles of liberty under law and presumptions about the innocence of individuals. Specifically, the project examines tensions created by claims that ‘security is the first freedom’ and that a new ‘balance’ has to be established to manage the global scale of contemporary dangers. The project focuses on the justification of these policies and constraints on grounds of emergency, necessity and prevention in a radically transformed global environment, and the impact these policies have on civil liberties, political rights and social cohesion