ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 explores legal constructs available to administer private military company (PMC) conduct and hold individual contractors and states accountable when gross misconducts occur. Setting the scene for an analysis of corporate responsibility of PMCs, this chapter focuses on the contemporary legal regulation of PMCs and the role of international legal institutions in shaping normative conditions in favour of and against their use. It explores contemporary problems posed by the overlapping regulation of PMCs and the limitations that derive from the existence of different bodies of law in their efforts to invoke individual and state responsibility. This chapter subsumes the lessons learned from the historical analysis in terms of the relationship between government and the military, as these patterns help identify weaknesses in existing regulatory approaches.
