| |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
  |
|
 |
|
  |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
The Applicability of International Law Standards to United Nations Economic Sanctions Programmes
W. Michael Reisman1 and Douglas L. Stevick2
Full text available: PDF format *
Abstract
In the first half-decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the UN Security Council repeatedly decreed mandatory economic sanctions programmes under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. Some of the programmes were severely criticized for their allegedly disproportionate effects on the populations of target states. The authors identify economic sanctions as a coercive instrument and assess the applicability of international law standards, including the traditional criteria of necessity, proportionality and discrimination, to mandatory UN economic sanctions programmes. After an overview of the theory of economic sanctions and their place among strategic instruments of enforcement, the authors review the instances of mandatory UN economic sanctions programmes, assessing their effects on the populations of the target states and the extent of the Council's consideration of international legal norms in designing and carrying out sanctions. Concluding that the Council has given inadequate consideration to international law standards in implementing these programmes, the authors propose five legal principles for mandatory economic sanctions programs: that highly coercive sanctions follow prescribed contingencies; that they be necessary and proportionate; that the sanctioners reasonably maximize discrimination between combatants and non-combatants; that sanctions programmes be periodically assessed; and that relief be provided to injured third parties.
* The free viewer (Acrobat Reader) for PDF file is
available at the
Adobe Systems.
1. Hohfeld Professor of Jurisprudence, Yale Law School, P.O. Box
208215, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8215, USA.
2. J.D. Yale 1996. The comments and suggestions of Carlos Viana,
J.D. Yale 1997 are gratefully acknowledged.
© 1990-2004 European Journal of International Law
All comments and suggestions should be sent to webmaster
This site is part
of the Academy of European Law online, a joint partnership of the Jean Monnet Center at NYU School of Law and the Academy of European
Law at the European University
Institute.
This file was last modified:
Tuesday, October 14, 2003 12:48PM