A Review of ‘Law’s Impunity: Responsibility and the Modern Private Military Company’

Abstract

The mercenaries and mercenarism are two points of concern for scholars studying the rules of war throughout history. Both in jus ad bellum (JAB) and jus in bellum (JIB) we can find a framework of international law crafted to impede the participation of individuals motivated to take part in hostilities to get private gain. Nevertheless, paradoxically, the problem is when corporations are supported by domestic law to perform serviced in ground combats abroad. In the latter case, Human Rights Law (HRL), International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Criminal Law (ICL) present numerous gaps that make it difficult to incriminate corporations, which perpetuate the impunity among private organizations involved in human rights violations in conflict zones.