War appears to offer unmatched opportunities for profit-making. Leaving aside private military/security companies and traditional weapons companies, a variety of businesses are increasingly coming under scrutiny for their involvement in situations of armed conflict. For instance, tech companies seem to be at the forefront of a new configuration of the military-industrial complex by offering essential services to military forces, ranging from the development of artificial intelligence tools for targeting purposes to the storage of surveillance data. To mention another example, corporations active in a variety of different sectors support the establishment and maintenance of military occupations and of illegal settlements in occupied territories, including through trade, investments, and the provision of services.
Although the International Committee of the Red Cross maintains that international humanitarian law (IHL) applies to business activities that are ‘sufficiently linked to’ (i.e. have a nexus with) an armed conflict, the validity and contours of this assertion remain subject to debate. This is particularly the case in relation to more indirect forms of corporate involvement in armed conflicts and to the application of specific IHL rules to private actors. The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights also affirm that, when operating in conflict-affected areas, enterprises should respect IHL and carry out a heightened version of human rights due diligence. The business and human rights (BHR) project, however, has been criticized among others for reproducing the structural inequalities of the global system of political economy and for its imperialist legacies. These and other shortcomings of the regime are arguably exacerbated in situations of armed conflict. Additionally, even though a handful of corporate officials and entities have been subjected to legal proceedings for doing business with armed groups and for aiding and abetting war crimes, the establishment of criminal responsibility in such circumstances is no easy task.
For this workshop, we invite contributions from scholars and practitioners interested in studying the involvement of businesses in armed conflict, broadly defined, from different perspectives. We aim to foster dialogue and find points of contact among sub-fields of international law and across methodological perspectives. We invite reflection on the limits of the law and the structural constraints of the relevant legal frameworks. Both theoretical and more practice-oriented contributions are welcome, and so are specific case studies. We encourage both early career researchers and established experts to participate, and we endeavor to select a diverse group of participants.
We invite contributions on issues including but not limited to:
- The applicability of IHL to businesses
- BHR and the notion of heightened human rights due diligence
- Critical approaches to the study of businesses’ involvement in armed conflict and international law/BHR (political economy/Marxist, TWAIL, and other approaches)
- The responsibilities of consumers, shareholders, and investors
- Civil and criminal litigation against business entities and officials
- BHR and transitional justice mechanisms
- Other opportunities and challenges for enforcing compliance with international law by businesses operating in armed conflict.
Practical information
The workshop will take place in Utrecht, The Netherlands, on Thursday 25 and Friday 26 June 2026.
Interested scholars should send a 300-word abstract and a short bio to Alessandra Spadaro (a.spadaro@uu.nl) and Laura Íñigo Álvarez (laura.inigo@novalaw.unl.pt) by Friday 28 November 2025. In your accompanying email, please also indicate whether you would be able to cover your own travel costs.
Selected participants will be notified by Friday 19 December and will be expected to send a 5000-word draft paper by Friday 22 May 2026. Draft papers will be circulated among all participants to facilitate discussion and feedback.
We aim to publish a selection of papers as part of a special issue in 2027.
Funding and organization
The workshop is organized by Dr Alessandra Spadaro (Utrecht University) and Dr Laura Íñigo Álvarez (NOVA School of Law). It is funded by Alessandra Spadaro’s NWO Veni project “Business in and for war: the role and limits of international humanitarian law” (VI.Veni.231R.046) and Laura Íñigo Álvarez’s Erasmus+ project “Corporate Respect for Human Rights in Conflict-Affected and High Risks Areas (CAHRA)”.