LCIL Seminar: 'Business actors and international humanitarian law: origins of a blind spot and contemporary challenges' - Dr Alessandra Spadaro, University of Utrecht

Time: 5 pm - 6 pm

Private businesses are involved in armed conflicts in different ways, including by providing military technology, services, or funds to belligerents and by exploiting natural resources in territories that are controlled by armed groups or occupied. This phenomenon affects humanitarian protections as well as conflict dynamics and outcomes. Nevertheless, it is hard to pinpoint direct obligations arising for businesses under international humanitarian law (IHL), particularly when their role is indirect and systemic rather than direct and operational. For instance, while private technology companies increasingly shape and enable the military capabilities of belligerents, the relevant obligations concerning the conduct of hostilities and the development of new weapons are only binding on their client states. Investigating the origins of this blind spot reveals that this is not just a contemporary regulatory challenge, but rather one that is historically and structurally produced to conceal certain forms of violence and to reaffirm the primacy of the state. By largely failing to recognize businesses as independent actors with corresponding obligations, IHL continues to obscure the material power and economic structures through which private actors enable force and shape conflict environments. Complementary legal regimes may help mitigate these limitations, but they do not resolve them. As the role of private businesses in war becomes more prominent, questions concerning the continued relevance of IHL and its ability to adapt to the changing nature of warfare will need to be reckoned with.

Dr Alessandra Spadaro works as an Assistant Professor in Public International Law at Utrecht University in The Netherlands. Currently, she is a Visiting Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Empire, Colonialism and International Law at SOAS University of London.

Alessandra’s work critically examines the international law frameworks applicable in armed conflicts. Her current research project titled “Business in and for war: the role and limits of international humanitarian law” is funded by a Veni grant of the Dutch Research Council. Alessandra holds a PhD in international law from the Geneva Graduate Institute.

Chair: Dr Lena Holzer, Centre Fellow

No registration required. This event is in person only and will not be recorded.