Sanctions as a legal phenomenon in the law of Ukraine and international standards of their application
Authors: Iakymchuk Nataliia 
Published: October 2021

The article examines the theoretical and practical issues of application of the Law of Ukraine «On Sanctions» of August 14, 2014 and analyzes the existing views on the legal nature of such «legal phenomenon» as sanctions - special economic, financial and other restrictive measures (sanctions) provided by this Law. The article specifies the main issues facing the researchers of the Institute of Sanctions. The purpose of the article is coverage of the state of legal regulation and legal nature of such a phenomenon as sanctions (economic, financial) in the right to Ukraine. In order to achieve this goal, the author used a set of general and special methods that are characteristic of legal science.

The article covers the issue of Ukraine's sovereign right to protection, in particular through the application of economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) «to protect national interests, national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, counter terrorist activity, as well as prevention of violations, restoration of violated rights and freedoms and legitimate interests of citizens of Ukraine, society and the state». The range of subjects against which sanctions can be applied has been studied, namely: a) foreign states; b) foreign legal entities; c) legal entities under the control of a foreign legal entity or a non-resident individual, foreigners, stateless persons; d) entities engaged in terrorist activities.

Sanctions are defined as legal measures to respond immediately to violations of various rights, from encroachment on state sovereignty to the commission of a crime of an international nature, which are temporary, which are applied primarily through coercive measures, which are implemented using constitutional, financial, administrative, economic, criminal procedural, executive, economic procedural and other branches of law. The issues of the grounds for application of sanctions, their types and criteria for their delimitation, the term of application of sanctions, as well as the range of authorized entities in the field of their application are covered. The main approaches of scholars to the characterization of sanctions as measures of influence are investigated. It is noted that sanctions are measures of influence different from measures of legal responsibility, which may have a "non-criminal" nature. It is stated that sanctions are measures of influence that are applied, albeit in parallel, but in a systematic connection with the criminal prosecution imposed by the state or executed by it as a subject of international cooperation in the fight against crime.

Their application is, firstly, due to the decision at the international or regional level on the application of international economic (financial) sanctions, personal sanctions in the course of criminal prosecution for acts of an international crime. However, Ukraine is obliged to adhere to international standards of the legal mechanism for the application of sanctions at the domestic level, to improve the procedural principles of their application, appeal procedures and amendments to the decision. We consider the participation of the Commissioner for Human Rights in the process of reviewing the decision on the application of sanctions and appealing the decisions necessary. Amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Sanctions" are proposed in order to establish among the necessary grounds for the application of sanctions to individuals the opening of criminal proceedings against them, and for legal entities - the opening of criminal proceedings against related persons, as well as amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, as it does not contain provisions on such preliminary measures (securing and stopping) as "sanctions". In addition, in general, the sanctions procedure requires greater transparency, and it is concluded that sanctions can be applied to Ukrainian citizens only if they are suspected of involvement in terrorist activities.