Originally from the Journal of Damages in International Arbitration

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Mr. Searby: As of Monday this week, there were 9,048 entities, mostly private citizens on the OFAC list. The popularity of national sanctions owes perhaps to their ease of introduction. As the panel will discuss, however, the effects of such sanctions are not limited to trading in dollars, and the imposition of sanctions on individuals may take a wide variety of forms. Usually, it is not stated why are you sanctioned, nor what conduct would result in the party becoming unsanctioned. It is telling that some of today’s sanctions have been in place for decades, easy to introduce but hard to lift. The application of sanctions today extends well beyond the U.S. The UK, the EU, China, Russia to name a few, all apply economic sanctions to foreign individuals. It is an open question as to whether an ever-rising number of sanctions against individuals, companies, and states is compatible with the smooth functioning of a multipolar world. The expansion of economic sanctions against individuals raises a wide range of potential legal and practical issues. I am therefore delighted to be joined today by four distinguished speakers to shed some light on the matter. Like all the best conference panels, we will be operating in a vacuum of any actual case decisions. Today, there have been no ICSID claims relating to the operation of sanctions. Nonetheless, the panelists have sought illumination where possible from other sources, including their own experience. 

Our first speaker is Katarina Chovancova. She is currently senior research fellow at the Institute of State and Law of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Her research focuses on international economic law and international investment law in particular. Katarina will talk about what we know about the law of sanctions from state-to-state history and seek to apply lessons to the realm of investor-state disputes and potentially private international law. Without further ado, I will hand over to Katarina, starting off with a discussion of the main legal principles underlying sanctions, and whether individuals or states have any right to compensation under public international law. Katarina.