Nowadays, private military and security companies (PMSCs) are playing an increasinglyimportant role in armed conflicts. In this regard, there are relevant questions about thelegality of their activities, as well as the ways of legal regulation. The article reviews thehistory of the appearing and functioning of PMSCs, analyzes the legal aspects which weredeveloped by the international community aiming the ways of legal regulation of privateand military companies, highlighted the most effective ways and means of regulatingPMSC. In some research by foreign and Russian specialists covering PMSCs activities inareas of armed conflict, it is emphasized the existence of serious and, in fact, intractableproblems of legal regulation of these commercial organizations that are currently operatingin a legal vacuum that goes beyond international law, laws of contracting states and statesof origin of PMSCs.An example of this can be the cases when the PMSC employees,being individuals working for remuneration, find themselves at the center of internationalscandals related to the executions of civilians, torture of prisoners, arms smuggling, childtrafficking, mortality and other crimes. Taking into account the fact that Russia still hasnot resolved the issue of creating a legislative basis for regulating PMSCs, the authorbelieves that as part of the work on solving the task posed by the leadership of our countryto create a legislative basis for regulating the activities of PMSCs, it is more rational toanalyze existing international legal instruments as well as foreign experience in the legalregulation of PMSCs, which, in turn, will contribute to solving the issue of the formationof a legal framework for the regulation of “private military power” in our country.At thesame time, it is necessary to emphasize that high-quality legal support for the activities ofPMSCs is a problem both of the states on the territory of which private military companiesoperate and of international law in general.The article reviews the history of the emergenceand operation of PMSCs, analyzes the regulatory and legal framework developed by theinternational community in the field of legal regulation of private military and securitycompanies, and highlights the most rational ways of regulating PMSC activities.
For citation: Ryzhov N. A. (2019) International Practices Concerning Legal Reputation of Private Military and Secutity Companies. Pravo. Zhurnal Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki, no 5, pp. 199–214 (in Russian) DOI: 10.17323/2072-8166.2019.5.199.214