Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2006
Publication Information
Ryan M. Scoville, Toward an Accountability-Based Definition of Mercenary, 37 Geo. J. Int’l L. 541 (2006). Posted with permission of the publisher, The Georgetown Journal of International Law © 2006.
Source Publication
37 Georgetown Journal of International Law 541 (2006)
Abstract
Mercenary violence is an increasingly serious threat to international security. From a legal perspective, the development of this threat is problematic because the international treaties that regulate "mercenaries" operate on a flawed definition of the concept. Even the most recent definition neither accounts for changes in global security over the past decade nor reflects the fundamental problem with mercenaries - the fact that they are not state-accountable actors. These deficiencies have contributed to the spread of mercenary activity by complicating treaty enforcement and undermining state support for the current law. This Note therefore proposes a new definition of "mercenary." The proposed definition expands the range of activity in which mercenaries participate and abandons elements of the existing definition that do not relate to accountability.
Repository Citation
Scoville, Ryan M., "Toward an Accountability-Based Definition of Mercenary" (2006). Faculty Publications. 287.
https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/facpub/287