Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Scholar: US Left 'Legal Vacuum' for Contractors

The US government and Congress failed to update laws and regulations to govern the actions of private military contractors abroad, creating a "legal vacuum" that will make it extremely difficult to make its case against former Blackwater men accused of killing civilians while protecting an American diplomat.

"Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, said it would be difficult for the government to win the case because of jurisdictional questions and the immunity issue," the Los Angeles Times reports.

"'Some of these problems result from the U.S. government's failure to create a clear, workable framework for private security contractors, so they operated in a legal vacuum,' Tobias said."

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