Calculating the potential risk of future terrorist violence is at the core of counter-terrorism practices. Particularly in court cases, this potential risk serves as legitimization for the preemptive criminalization of suspicious (financial) behaviour. This article argues that the preemptive temporality seen in such court cases is a practice of ‘sorting time’ and producing distinct legal definitions around future violence. Building on postcolonial and feminist scholarship on temporality, the article examines preemptive temporality as the material, embodied and multiple engagements with time that are enacted in terrorism court cases. Through the use of empirical data obtained from court observations, court judgements and interviews with legal practitioners, accounts of empirical temporalities are traced to illuminate other forms of violence that until now have been overshadowed by the dominant (and relatively unchallenged) perception of future terrorist threats that is enacted in the courtroom. In this way, the article makes two important contributions. First, it advances the theoretical debate on preemptive security through an examination of how legal and security practices co-produce temporality by defining future terrorist violence. Second, it contributes empirically by showing how temporality is constructed in multiple ways, paying specific attention to temporalities resisting dominating perceptions of future terrorist violence.

计算未来恐怖主义暴力的潜在风险是反恐实践的核心。特别是在法庭案件中，这种潜在风险可作为对可疑（金融）行为的先发制人的刑事定罪的合法化。本文认为，在此类法庭案件中看到的先发制人的时间性是一种“整理时间”并围绕未来暴力产生不同法律定义的做法。建立在后殖民和女权主义关于时间的学术研究的基础上，本文将先发制人的时间性视为恐怖主义法庭案件中制定的物质的、具身的和多重的时间参与。通过使用从法庭观察、法庭判决和与法律从业者的访谈中获得的经验数据，对经验时间性的描述被追踪以阐明其他形式的暴力，直到现在，这些暴力形式都被法庭上对未来恐怖主义威胁的主流（且相对不受质疑）的看法所掩盖。这样，本文做出了两个重要贡献。首先，它通过定义未来的恐怖主义暴力，通过检查法律和安全实践如何共同产生时间性，推进了关于先发制人安全的理论辩论。其次，它通过展示时间性是如何以多种方式构建的经验性贡献，特别关注抵抗未来恐怖主义暴力的主导观念的时间性。这篇文章有两个重要贡献。首先，它通过定义未来的恐怖主义暴力，通过检查法律和安全实践如何共同产生时间性，推进了关于先发制人安全的理论辩论。其次，它通过展示时间性是如何以多种方式构建的经验性贡献，特别关注抵抗未来恐怖主义暴力的主导观念的时间性。这篇文章有两个重要贡献。首先，它通过定义未来的恐怖主义暴力，通过检查法律和安全实践如何共同产生时间性，推进了关于先发制人安全的理论辩论。其次，它通过展示时间性是如何以多种方式构建的经验性贡献，特别关注抵抗未来恐怖主义暴力的主导观念的时间性。