Balancing Security and Rights: Constructing a Rule-of-Law Framework for Counter-Terrorism Intelligence Sharing under Holistic National Security

Abstract

In the twenty-first century, terrorism has evolved into a highly fluid, networked, and attribution-resistant global risk. Counterterrorism intelligence sharing has become an indispensable instrument of national security governance, yet its expansion has simultaneously generated profound tensions with fundamental rights to privacy, a fair trial, and data protection. Drawing on risk governance theory and an examination of landmark cases—including the European Court of Human Rights' Wieder and Guarnieri v. United Kingdom (2023), the Court of Justice of the European Union's EncroChat decision (2024), and China's evolving counter-terrorism legal framework under the Holistic National Security concept—this article argues that the central challenge of modern counter-terrorism intelligence sharing lies not in choosing between security and liberty, but in constructing institutional mechanisms capable of maintaining a "resilient equilibrium" between them. China's CounterTerrorism Law, National Intelligence Law, and National Security Law collectively establish a legal foundation for intelligence cooperation while explicitly affirming the principles of rule of law and human rights protection. The path forward lies in refining procedural safeguards, strengthening judicial review, and embedding data protection standards into intelligencesharing mechanisms—thereby transforming counter-terrorism intelligence sharing from a source of rights tension into a model of rule-of-law governance.