THE LEGALITY OF IMPOSING UNILATERAL ECONOMIC SANCTIONS AT THE LEVEL OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Abstract

Following the League of Nations' failure to deal with the Second World War, the United Nations was determined not to repeat the tragedies of war, focusing on the preservation of international peace and security, as well as the use of peaceful means to resolve international conflicts by the principles of justice and international law. To fulfill its earlier objectives, this organization had a series of assurances and punishments outlined in its charter. However, the United Nations was not the only entity to employ these penalties. Instead, governments used these penalties independently to pursue their aims and interests. As a result, the second half of the twentieth century saw a significant increase in the use of unilateral economic sanctions by countries, whether this increase is related to the intensity and breadth of imposing such sanctions at the level of international relations or to the multiplicity of their forms and levels, as well as the development of their tools and policies. As a result, unilateral economic sanctions are a clear violation of the principles of international law and its peremptory norms, particularly those that prohibit members of the international community from using or threatening to use force on the level of international mutual relations among them, as well as a violation of the rules that affirm the sovereignty of countries and the inadmissibility of intervention in their internal or foreign affairs.