Book

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Privatizing war : legal, moral and historical reflections on the status of private military contractors

Daphné Richemond-Barak

[S.l.] : [s.n.], [2010]

III, 360 p. ; 30 cm

English

Bibliography : p. 314-360. PhD thesis, Tel-Aviv University, [2010].

This PhD thesis addresses the question of how international humanitarian law can and should contend with the hiring of private military contractors to carry out security and military functions on behalf of states, corporations, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations. It argues for an interpretation of combatant status which, informed by a historical and moral analysis, encompasses private military contractors. Daphné Richemond-Barak asserts that international humanitarian law should be interpreted in a manner consistent with its historical and moral roots, which she argues support the identification of private military contractors as combatant. She concludes that treating these actors as combatants would provide the missing incentives for them to act in accordance with humanitarian law. As such, she explains that the normative proposal defended in her study is not only consistent with the spirit of the law but also morally sound and practically expedient.