Historically, sanctions were a tool of war. Today, sanctions are often divorced from war. One manifestation of this development has been the increasing resort to sanctions against particular individuals or entities. This has raised the issue as to whether or not targeted persons or entities have the ability to challenge their inclusion on the relevant sanctions list. While decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union (Kadi, Bank Melli Iran, Kadi II, and Ayadi) and the European Court of Human Rights (Al-Jedda v United Kingdom, Nada v Switzerland, and Al-Dulimi v Switzerland) have found that sanctions regimes must be rendered compliant with human rights, protections outside Europe remain scant. Indeed, sanctions continue to be used by many States as a form of quasi-criminal enforcement.
Lindeborg employs both conventional and creative approaches to effectively challenge the imposition of sanctions. Conventional approaches include advising and acting for clients in proceedings before the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Court of Human Rights, and domestic courts. Creative approaches utilise other tools of public international law, including treaty-based arbitration, to effectively solve clients’ problems.
Our team has recently advised and acted for, among others, a Spanish telecommunications company, and a major manufacturer of underground construction machinery, in relation to EU and UK sanctions on Iran.
