Transnational Privatised Security and the International Protection of Human Rights

In this study Katja Creutz closely analyses the emergence and role of private security and military companies against the background of a dispersed international legal regime. There are few clear rules on such companies; a single treaty regulating their behaviour is lacking. Yet that does not mean that they operate in a legal vacuum - and therewith remain somehow uncontrolled and uncontrollable. Instead, even if they are private actors, there are clear legal responsibilities for the states under whose auspices they operate, responsibilities stemming from the general rules on state responsibility, from human rights law, and humanitarian law.