Legal and regulatory aspects of improving the sanctions policy of Ukraine

Abstract

The paper examines the legal nature of sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council and individual states to combat violations of international law. The UN Security Council sanctions have been identified as mainly economic restrictions and other coercive measures imposed for violations of major international human rights conventions and instruments. A comparative legal analysis of the sanctions policy of the United States of America and the European Union was carried out, on the basis of which it was concluded that the sanctions policy implemented by the European Union and the United States of America is fundamentally different. In the EU, it is implemented in accordance with the institutional documents on the establishment of the European Union, which allow the introduction of restrictive measures against individuals or legal entities and groups or non-governmental organizations. At the same time, US sanctions are imposed on any entity that poses a threat to the US economy, even when its actions are lawful under national law. The US experience with the introduction of “secondary sanctions” is interesting, when a natural or legal person cooperating with sanctioned organizations or individuals may be subject to US economic sanctions. The content of the Law of Ukraine “On Sanctions” and the practice of its implementation through the decisions of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, which are enacted by Decrees of the President of Ukraine. Based on the above, proposals and recommendations for improving its content are formulated: 1) to determine that sanctions against citizens of Ukraine are an exceptional measure and are applied in case of impossibility of full pre-trial investigation due to their stay outside the jurisdiction of Ukraine; 2) to expand the list of legal grounds for the application of sanctions to citizens of Ukraine by including, in addition to terrorist activities, the commission of crimes against the foundations of national security of Ukraine; 3) to determine an exhaustive list of sanctions to enshrine in it the possibility of restricting access to Internet resources; 4) to establish a mechanism of legal liability for non-compliance with the requirements imposed by sanctions.