Abstract
By adopting a Global Human Rights Sanctions regime, the European Union took a new step in leveraging its power to respond to human rights violations globally. The regime has a general scope, and targets both state and non-state actors. This paper shows that this regime occupies a tension zone between two competing approaches or mindsets to sanctions: a self-help approach that perceives sanctions as deriving authority from states’ sovereignty and subservient to their foreign policy, and a global governance approach that views sanctions as deriving authority from and bound by the objectives of specific international legal regimes they enforce. The tension between these approaches comes into stark view when constructing the listing criteria and policy objectives of the sanctions, which determine the scope of targets and duration of measures. Whether and how subsequent practice resolves this tension will be determined by certain legislative and interpretive moves by the EU Council and Court.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3-35 |
| Number of pages | 33 |
| Journal | International Community Law Review |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 20 Dec 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 20 Dec 2021 |
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Keywords
- EU foreign policy
- Erga omnes obligations
- Global governance
- Human rights
- Sanctions
- Self-interest
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Political Science and International Relations
- Law