Sanctions equal acts of aggression? : A study of the EU sanctions regime targeting the Russian Federation

Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to examine whether the European Union’s (EU) sanctions regime currently targeting the Russian Federation could be regarded as an act of aggression according to international law.  The thesis discusses acts of aggression as they are defined in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations (UN Charter), the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Criminal Court (ICC) and in accordance with the 2001 Draft Articles of the International Law Commission. Additionally, the concept of economic aggression is examined through relevant Articles of the UN Charter, the principle of non-intervention and the legal framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Thereafter, the thesis proceeds with examining the legal framework of sanctions, EU autonomous sanctions and third-party countermeasures. Legal arguments supporting both the European Union’s and the Russian Federation’s side on the issue are put forth in analyzing commentaries. The findings of the thesis indicate that the legal framework of sanctions, and in particular third-party countermeasures, is ambiguous and would seem to partially substantiate arguments for their potential constituency of acts of aggression. However, the findings also suggest that the current definitions of the ‘use of force’ and ‘acts of aggression’ as these concepts are defined in the UN Charter and in the jurisprudence of the ICJ and the ICC renders any such arguments difficult to uphold. Conclusively, the thesis finds that the ‘use of economic force’ and an ‘act of economic aggression’ would need to be explicitly defined or implemented in Art. 2(4) of the UN Charter and the United Nation’s General Assembly Resolution 3314 respectively for sanctions, and by extension the current EU sanctions regime, to be properly conceptualized as potential acts of aggression.