Arms Exports Controls

Arms exports are conducted within a complex regulatory network, which encompasses both supranational and domestic legal frameworks. This chapter addresses how, despite being transacted within that complex set of regulations, arms transfers occur in practice in variably legal markets. It argues that this occurs because arms-exporting States’ compliance with their arms exports controls obligations is variable and situational, particularly when it comes to the humanitarian and human rights risk assessments, which are a mandatory component of arms export licenses. In turn, this variability in compliance means that some arms exports are made in a dynamic continuum of legality, along blurred lines which do not neatly fit traditional conceptions of neither legal nor ‘black’ markets.