Economic Sanctions in International Law and A Short Evaluation of the Us’ Unilateral Sanctions

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyse the international legality and the effectiveness of economic sanctioning policies, adopted by states to force each other to behave in a certain way in areas of conflict. In this regard, first of all, research directed towards discovering if a rule exists prohibiting economic sanction is undertaken, and then relevant international rules that need to be conformed in applying these policies are elaborated. Another issue addressed in this article is the probability of success, namely, effectiveness, of these sanctioning policies. In this context, economic and social inter and intra state dynamics, which either strengthen or weaken the effectiveness of these policies, are closely examined. Finally, the article scrutinises, from the perspective of international law, the problems arising from the US’ laws having extraterritorial effects and prescribing sanctions for foreign entities.