ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses whether and how the existing legal norms regulating the armed forces, at both international and domestic level, can be effectively applied to the private security industry or whether they need to be supplemented with new norms. It discusses if the UN Charter regulates the employment of private security companies during peacekeeping operations. International humanitarian law (IHL) only assigns a few tasks exclusively to state officers, including the exercise of responsible authority for prisoner-of-war camps or places of internment of civilians, under the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions. Since IHL does not distinguish between offensive and defensive operations, defending military targets from the enemy amounts to taking a direct part in hostilities. There is a clear need to develop a shared regulatory approach on state contracting of private security services. The chapter also discusses how domestic law determines which security services may or may not be contracted.
