Private military companies: The new Mercenaries? - an international law analysis

Abstract

Private Military Companies (PMCs) are often refered to as employers of 'modern mercenaries' or 'mercenary firms'. Being labeled as 'mercenary' can have grave consequences for the individuals, e.g., whether their participation in combat actions is lawful and whether they can claim prisoner of war status. This essay aims at answering the question whether the firms or their employees are mercenaries in terms of International Law. In order to answer these question the first part of the essay states the different definitions of mercenaries used in International Law. In part two, these definitions are applied to actually existing PMCs and their employees in the form of short case studies. It will be shown that the present legal definitions hardly provide a proper tool for labeling PMCs and their employees mercenaries. The last part of the essay intends to present solutions to this problem. © 2007 VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften | GWV Fachverlage GmbH, Wiesbaden.