There are many theoretical and legal issues related to the operation of private military companies (PMCs) and their presence (location of their registered offices) in democratic states under the rule of law that remain unsolved in legal doctrine and practice. There are no clear rules at an international level that define the status of these agencies and the way in which they carry out their duties. There is also the problem of distinguishing between contractors and mercenaries. PMCs, like private security companies (PSCs), are used by states in exchange for large government contracts in so-called „unwanted wars”, where it is cheaper to conduct operations without parliamentary oversight, media publicity, or social objections to sending military contingents abroad. Sometimes it is a question of providing discrete military aid to „friend countries”. PMCs are politically safer in such a situation. Not only states but also non-governmental organizations, private companies,
rebel groups and declining dictators hire these private armies. The problem requires urgent multifaceted reflection leading to changes in legal doctrine and legislative action, both at the international level and in individual countries.

The causative force of the state in the 21stcentury depends on the coherence of the law and the importance of non-legal regulations of large corporations. Multi-centricity, multi-level structure and the strength of „soft law” of corporations lead to the transformation of internal law and altering of its function. In addition states give up their welfare and privatise various tasks. They lose the essential elements of the legal, territorial and personal sovereignty. Does giving away numerous normative areas mean that the states do weaken their causative force?

The article is an attempt to analyse the relationship between private security enterprises and citizens. Explored is what access to safety information has the user of guarded premises. The paper examined the regulations of private security firms and the requirements of keeping available monitoring records. The article reviews records of interviews with employees and managers, in which their work were discussed. The material used in this article are the result of controlled experiments carried out by a student research group operating within the framework of project NCN Opus 5 and headed by prof. Jolanta Jabłońska-Bonca. Under an established scenario, in which students took on different roles, the group were able to study the tendency of security personnel to disclose information related to their work. Parts of the conversations referred to in the text have been anonymised. The authentic spelling was retained to reflect in full a profile of a given worker and to give the reader an opportunity to perceive the atmosphere of the interviewing process.