Assessing State Jurisdiction and Industry Regulation over Private Maritime Security. An international and comparative regulatory review

Abstract

This paper will examine the evolving role of Privately Contracted Armed Security Personnel, specifically state jurisdiction over their activities in international law as well as explain the myriad of soft law and industry-led regulations which have emerged in the maritime security sector. It will begin by depicting the private maritime security evolution against the backdrop of the modern maritime industry’s development. It will go on to evaluate the main framework-setting instruments, as legal sources, for private maritime security activities in international law, namely UNCLOS, SUA, SOLAS, UN Firearms Protocol, as well as the Principle of Self Defense and the Doctrine of Necessity. It will touch on the challenges related to evaluating provision of armed guards aboard a merchant ship as contrary to innocent passage and/or the need for giving prior notification, as argued for by some coastal states. The paper will go on to explain market responses to the maritime security industry boom, namely the emergence of soft law, industry-led regulations, codes of conduct, and certification schemes designed to add order, oversight, and accountability to this industry, closing the governance gaps left open in hard-law frameworks. Such examples will be International Maritime Organization Circulars, the Montreux Document, the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Providers (ICoC), and ISO/PAS 28007. The paper will conclude with a summary of findings and outlook for the future regulatory trends in this sector.