ABSTRACT
The foundations of the State-centric approach to international law having been contextualised, it is now necessary to critically examine the practical operation of the accountability mechanisms underpinned by this theoretical framing. This chapter exposes the central challenges that non-State actors operating in weak governance States present to existing State-based regulatory initiatives. The extractive industry offers a useful vehicle for this analysis. The barriers to effective non-State actor regulation are magnified in this context, owing to the reliance of resource-rich States on FDI and the instances of prolonged civil strife regularly occurring within their territories. These fragile States often act as a point of confluence among distinct non-State entities whose legal regulation is further complicated by their interplay. Accordingly, the utility of this study’s focus on the intersecting roles of MNEs and non-State armed groups will become particularly apparent. The abuses arising from the activities of MNEs decisively illustrate the practical failings of existing domestic and international accountability regimes. As for the theoretical hurdles to the establishment of direct non-State actor regulation at the international level (the subject of the next chapter), an analysis of non-State armed groups in particular exposes serious flaws.
