Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
Content archived on 2024-05-28

Regulating privatisation of “war”: the role of the EU in assuring the compliance with international humanitarian law and human rights

Objective

The goal of the research project is to assess the impact of the extensive use of private military and security companies in situations of armed conflict and to discuss the regulatory framework at national, European and international levels, to assure compliance with international humanitarian law and human rights. Though this is not a new phenomenon, the fear motivating commentators and activists was that private companies operate in a legal vacuum. Although there is growing consensus now in the literature that the situation actually resembles more a complex patchwork of norms, the key question still remains whether and how these existing norms can be effectively applied and whether they need to be supplemented with new norms. Specific objectives are: to promote a better understanding of the phenomenon of the privatisation of war; to clarify the legal status of PMCs/PSCs employees under international humanitarian law; to foster knowledge on the impact of private military activities on the enjoyment of human rights; to analyse international responsibility and accountability of the corporations; to examine the existing regulation at national and EU levels, to explore the ways the EU could regulate PMCs/PSCs. The current proposal seeks to highlight the crucial role of the EU in three respects, which to date have not received much attention in the literature. First, the proposal will seek to offer insights into how the EU can and should develop a unified position on the international regulation of PMCs/PSCs. Second, the work to be undertaken will assess the need for and potential of harmonization of the EU member states’ domestic approaches towards PMCs/PSCs. Lastly, the present proposal will offer advice to policymakers on the development of a regulation scheme at the supranational level. To date, the existing literature on such schemes has largely neglected the role of the EU could and should play in this regard.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-SSH-2007-1
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

CP-FP - Small or medium-scale focused research project

Coordinator

EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE
EU contribution
€ 372 320,00
Address
VIA DEI ROCCETTINI 9
50014 Fiesole
Italy

See on map

Region
Centro (IT) Toscana Firenze
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data

Participants (6)

My booklet 0 0