Economic sanctions and International laws
In last 3 months or so, International sanctions have been in the news in light of Russia-Ukraine conflict. The moves initiated by United States have been followed up by its allies mainly in Europe. It’s imperative to examine nature of these sanctions and further, do such sanctions carry any validity under International Law. Sanctions are primarily, political decisions which graduate into diplomatic and economic steps, initiated by countries unilaterally or multi-laterally (through United Nations) against other countries or organizations or specific persons, under the notion of disciplining them. Real aim is to protect security interests of the sanctioning country while the purported aim could be maintenance of world peace. Sanctions are interventions for punishing an adversary, short of waging war with them, virtually bridging the gap between mere protest /denunciation and use of force. But the political character of these sanctions cannot be negated. These are generally used