Transnational Privatised Security and the International Protection of Human Rights (Erik Castrén Institute Research Reports, 19/2006)

189 pp., bibliography. "States increasingly rely on the private sector in their security and military arrangements. The privatised security business is a blooming global industry with a variety of private companies selling different kinds of security and military services transnationally. 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. The result is a fine, well-researched, plausible, and highly timely in-depth study of the international legal regime on transnational privatised security.".…