International Responsibility of the State for the Violation of International Military and Security Companies under the Rules of International Law

Abstract

The significance of this study stems from shedding light on the nature of the country’s responsibility based on the acts of private military and security companies through the description of the staff of companies. This, however, in turn determines the referral of their acts or not to the countries that are parties to the armed conflicts. It also results to the consequence of the international responsibility of the country and the impacts of this responsibility. This study focuses on clarifying the concept of international responsibility of countries, determine the legal basis for this responsibility, identify the legal nature of the private military and security companies, and search for the legal rules governing them. This helps in determining the nature of their work and the reflection of these acts based on the extent of the official international responsibility for the contracted countries. It also seeks to identify the differentiation and the difference in the responsibility of the country based on the description of private military and security companies’ staff. This is because they are a formation of their armed forces or they were not described as this. Also, the case of the responsibility of the country for the committed violations by persons or private groups was recognized by the country and was adopted as behaviors issued by it. In spite of that, this study will focus on the nature of the responsibility of the concerned country based on the referral of the acts of the staff of these companies or not as a self-assigned responsibility. In other words, there is an image to adapt the responsibility of the country in the case of the conditions available for the staff of these companies such as mercenaries, combatants, or civilians.The study concludes that there is a clear legal deficiency in the rules of international law whereas legal rules do not contain any legal provisions that deal with the responsibility of these companies regarding any violation committed during the course of their work and their military services in the conflict zones. Hence,  many States have needed these companies to avoid the international responsibilities in case of the violation of international humanitarian law.

Keywords: International Responsibility, International Military and Security Companies, International Humanitarian Law

DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/92-05

Publication date: December 31^st 2019