Economic and Legal Nature of Sanctions:Degree of Their Legality and Efficiency In Terms of International Law

Abstract

With the increase in the number of international legal obligations and the absence of centralized institutional enforcement, economic coercion has become increasingly widespread as a tool for ensuring compliance with international law. The purpose of this work is to study the concept of “sanctions / unilateral restrictive measures” in the framework of the political, legal and economic analysis. Due to the lack of a common understanding of the nature of unilateral restrictive measures, the author analyzes and highlights the main features of sanctions. Based on the features identified, the author formulated a definition that is universal for most modern jurisdictions. Sanctions are understood as extraterritorial measures and/or restrictions in the economic sector used by the initiating state (or a group of such states) unilaterally for the purpose of political coercion of the target state. The paper argues for the need for a clear separation of multilateral and unilateral sanctions, the latter of which do not have a sufficient degree of legality in terms of international law. A solution to the problem of the lack of an established standard for assessing the effectiveness of economic sanctions is also proposed by clearly specifying the criteria and fixing them in international practice and regulatory documents. It is concluded that the use of the term “restrictive economic measures” instead of the term “sanctions” is legally more correct. The necessity of unification of international legal norms regulating the procedure, possibility and consequences of the application of unilateral sanctions is pointed out.