Determining the Status of Private Military Companies under International Law: A Quest to Solve Accountability Issues in Armed Conflicts

This chapter examines the debate concerning a state’s intervention in internal armed conflicts based on invitation, either from the government or from a rebel group fighting against the government. It looks at the issues that arise from intervention by invitation, particularly those relating to the territorial integrity of the state, the status of the actors involved, the nature of the consent, and implications for international law in general and for politics and human rights in particular. The chapter first considers the traditional view of intervention by invitation and the recent challenges to that view. It then discusses the negative equality principle as it applies to intervention in civil wars, as well as the link between intervention by invitation and democratic legitimacy. It also analyses the position of the UN Security Council on intervention by invitation.

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South African Private Security Contractors Active in Armed Conflicts: Citizenship, Prosecution and the Right to Work

Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal/Potchefstroomse Elektroniese Regsblad ◽

10.17159/1727-3781/2011/v14i7a2618 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 14 (7) ◽

pp. 70

Author(s):

Shannon Bosch ◽

Marelie Maritz

Keyword(s):

International Law ◽

South African ◽

Global Economy ◽

Private Security ◽

Armed Conflicts ◽

Humanitarian Law ◽

The South ◽

The Status ◽

The Right ◽

Security Contractors

South Africa has adopted two pieces of legislation since 1998 aimed at restricting one of the fastest growing sectors of the global economy: the private security industry. Not only is this legislation completely unique, but it appears wholly at odds with international opinion. In this article we place private security contractors (PSCs) under the microscope of international law, exploring the role they play in armed conflicts, and the status afforded them by international humanitarian law (IHL). We address the issue of prohibited mercenarism, questioning whether PSCs should be categorised as mercenaries. We then shift our focus to the South African legislation and discuss the ambit of its application as compared with international law obligations to outlaw mercenaries. We discuss the likelihood of successful prosecution of PSCs, and the potential penalties that PSCs might face in terms of the South African legislation. Lastly we consider the constitutional challenges which might emerge as this legislation, and a proposed amendment to the South African Citizenship Act threaten the constitutionally protected rights of South African PSCs to practise a profession and enjoy citizenship.

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Contingencies of Context

10.1093/oso/9780192898036.003.0019 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 319-337

Author(s):

Emma Stone Mackinnon

Keyword(s):

International Law ◽

Political Thought ◽

Meaning Making ◽

Armed Conflicts ◽

Humanitarian Law ◽

National Liberation ◽

Geneva Conventions ◽

The Status ◽

Project Tracing ◽

A Site

This chapter considers the presence of anticolonial political thought in and as international law, and in particular the legacies of the Algerian Revolution for the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions. The Additional Protocols extended to wars of national liberation the status of international armed conflicts, a move often explained as a straightforward product of context: an effort to expand the reach of humanitarian law to conflicts like those in Algeria and Vietnam. Returning to the legal arguments of the Algerian revolutionaries, however, reveals more complex arguments about what made the conflict international. Rather than straightforwardly nationalist, those arguments entailed robust conceptions of sovereignty, aggression, and the nature of decolonisation as a legal project. Tracing those arguments through the deliberations over the Additional Protocols, the chapter shows how, rather than simply reflecting its context, law operates as a site of historical meaning-making to adjudicate the past’s significance.

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Private Military Companies and the Jus Ad Bellum

10.1093/law/9780199673049.003.0054 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ian Ralby

Keyword(s):

International Relations ◽

International Law ◽

Real World ◽

Use Of Force ◽

Armed Forces ◽

Armed Conflicts ◽

State Responsibility ◽

Private Companies ◽

Jus Ad Bellum ◽

Private Military Companies

This chapter examines the use of private military companies (PMCs) to deal with international armed conflicts and the prohibition of the use of force in relation to such entities. It considers the jus ad bellum implications of private military contracting in international law and international relations. The chapter explains what PMCs are and what they do, drawing a distinction between mercenaries and various terms used to refer to private companies hired by states in lieu of armed forces. It presents case studies where PMCs have engaged in prohibited or lawful use of force at the behest of a state, or where they may be used by a state in situations that run counter to jus ad bellum. Three real-world examples are highlighted. The chapter concludes by assessing the implications of using PMCs in armed conflicts for state responsibility with respect to the prohibition on the use of force.

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Private military companies: their status under international humanitarian law and its impact on their regulation

International Review of the Red Cross ◽

10.1017/s1816383106000683 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 88 (863) ◽

pp. 573-598 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Lindsey Cameron

Keyword(s):

International Community ◽

Armed Conflicts ◽

International Humanitarian Law ◽

Humanitarian Law ◽

Private Military Companies ◽

The Status ◽

Potential Impact

AbstractStates are increasingly hiring private military companies to act in zones where armed conflicts are occurring. The predominant feeling in the international community is that it would be best to regulate such companies. Cognizant of much confusion as to the status of the employees of private military companies under international humanitarian law, this article explains the laws on mercenaries, combatants and civilians and explores how private military companies' employees may fall into any of those categories. It demonstrates that the concept of mercenarism is unhelpful for regulating these companies and that it is unlikely that many of the employees of these companies can be considered to have combatant status. The article considers possible consequences of private military companies' employees having the status of civilians under international humanitarian law and their potential impact on regulating these companies effectively.

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Applicability of the rules of international humanitarian law to peacekeeping operations in regional crises

The Journal of the National Institute of Justice ◽

10.52277/1857-2405.2021.2(57).04 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 26-32

Author(s):

Alexandru Cauia ◽

◽

Naif Jassim Alabduljabbar ◽

Keyword(s):

International Law ◽

Point Of View ◽

Armed Conflicts ◽

International Humanitarian Law ◽

Humanitarian Law ◽

Legal Rules ◽

Peacekeeping Operations ◽

Military Conflicts ◽

The Status ◽

The Subject

Reading the International Humanitarian Law, point of view of the status of subjects of Public International Law of the parties ist the only issue that involved in military conflicts matters so that they can be qualified as international or non-international, which depends directly on the volume of legal rules to be enforced and complied by the warring parties. Thus, members of peacekeeping operations conducted under the auspices of the UN, or with the participation of regional structures must strictly comply with the provisions of the rules of war throughout their actions in situations that may qualify as armed conflicts. Mechanisms and instruments for ensuring compliance with the rules of International Humanitarian Law by members of peacekeeping contingents shall be the subject of research in this article.

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