РУАЭСТ (RUAEST)
UNILATERAL SANCTIONS IN A MULTIPOLAR WORLD: LEGAL CHALLENGES
The present article deals with the theoretical, practical and comparative aspects of the restrictive measures regime. Strictly speaking, international sanctions are punitive measures of vertical effect, and they are applied by the United Nations (UN) Security Council. As for unilateral measures imposed by the states or international organizations in order to prevent alleged illegal actions of a third state one should use the term ‘restrictive measures’. However, many legal systems discern no difference between the terms ‘sanctions’ and ‘restrictive measures’. The following types of sanctions could be singled out: the targeted sanctions against specific persons, who are responsible for alleged illegal actions of the transgressing state, sectorial sanctions, which are meant against certain economy sectors of the state in question. In the European Union the sanctions represent the economic influence mechanism upon the third states, their nationals — both natural persons and legal entities, in order to reach the goals of the EU. The European Union adopts two acts imposing sanctions: a Decision under Art 29 Treaty on European Union as a part of the Common Foreign Security Policy for the European Union(CFSP) and a Regulation, which is then adopted under the Art. 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union(TFEU ) for the purposes of more comprehensive implementation. As for challenging the European Union sanctions, the only effective mechanism is the European Court of Justice (ECJ), since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has no jurisdiction to resolve disputes between a state and an international organization, and under the World Trade Organization (WTO) law the members’ right to apply security exceptions is in fact absolute. In the European Union only natural persons and legal entities possess the right to challenge sanctions imposed upon them. There are three basic grounds for the annulment of acts establishing the sanctions: a manifest error of assessment, procedural grounds and human rights and proportionality grounds.