Search: extraterritorial sanctions
22 May Curb Your Enthusiasm (Not Your Emissions): Analysis of the ECtHR Rulings on State Responsibility for Climate Change
...Portugal and 32 other Council of Europe states. In respect of the latter, their claim was necessarily extraterritorial. While their standing was denied for the reasons outlined above, their bid to expand the Court’s extraterritorial jurisdiction was also rejected. Under the Convention, the term jurisdiction defines the area in which a State must protect, promote and respect human rights (art. 1). This is usually confined to national borders. The ECtHR has accepted extraterritorial application of the Convention if States hold “effective control over a foreign territory”, or State agents have...
19 May The Right to Science Under Siege: Sanctions Over-Compliance and Digital Exclusion in Iran
...Iranian academia. In corporate calculus, the cost of distinguishing a civilian Iranian student from a sanctioned entity far outweighs the near-zero revenue from the Iranian market. Consequently, firms often resort to blanket bans. This practice of over-compliance creates a systemic failure identified by UN Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan. In her report on the visit to Iran (A/HRC/51/33/Add.1), she argues that private actors, driven by fear of secondary sanctions, act as unaccountable enforcement agents, expanding sanctions beyond their legal limits. Legally, this violates the requirement of Human Rights Due Diligence under...
25 Sep Positive Retorsion and the Power and Responsibilities of States Parties to Protect the ICC
[Jens Iverson is an assistant professor of international law at Leiden University.] In November 2025, I wrote on this site about The Power and Responsibility of the EU to Protect the ICC from US Sanctions. There I discussed issues such as the use of the Anti-Coercion Instrument, (AKA “the Big Bazooka”), the Extraterritoriality (Blocking) Statute and the European Commission supported Digital Commons European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (EDIC), all of which could be used to protect the ICC. The simple policy query often presented (in terms of what the EU should do) is usually framed...
29 May Symposium on Advancing Effective and Comprehensive Reparation for Victims of the War in Ukraine: Asset Recovery for Ukraine – The Long Road
...emerging practice relies on domestic frameworks permitting confiscation where assets constitute the proceeds of crime. Rather than seizing assets solely by virtue of sanctions designations, governments have targeted frozen assets traceable to unlawful conduct, especially sanctions evasion – for example, assets moved or concealed in anticipation of imminent sanctions. This approach rests on firmer legal ground and has been upheld by the ECtHR as compatible with property and fair trial rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. The US has moved furthest along this path. Under the 2023 Consolidated...
04 Feb Comity as Cover? How U.S. Courts Balance International Law Away
...is intended to apply extraterritorially unless Congress clearly indicates otherwise. Thus, on its face, the presumption appears to limit the reach of U.S. law abroad by setting a high threshold for applying statutes extraterritorially. Yet, the presumption does not categorically prohibit extraterritorial application. Rather, it acts as a procedural gatekeeping mechanism. Courts first determine whether the statutory text contains a “clear, affirmative indication” of extraterritorial intent. If no such language exists, the inquiry ends with the statute being confined to domestic application. However, if courts find that there is sufficient...
05 Nov The Power and Responsibility of the EU to Protect the ICC from US Sanctions
...will reveal the actual values of the states who as a matter of law are pledged to combat atrocity and impunity. There have been some responses to the sanctions so far, and it is hard to know what is happening beyond the scenes. A 22 August 2025 letter from civil society lists reasons why the sanctions against ICC Judges and Deputy Prosecutors and previous sanctions are objectionable and collect responses from civil society, States Parties, the EU, and the UN. The European Parliament’s response is of particular note, calling on...
11 Oct From Engaged to Destructive Exceptionalism: The United States and the ICC
...sweeping new round of sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC), marking a dramatic escalation in its campaign against the Court. The Trump administration formally designated the Court itself under its sanctions regime, adding the institution to the US Treasury’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) List. This represents a significant escalation from the previous sanctions targeting individual ICC judges and prosecutors. The designation subjects the Court itself to US asset-blocking and transaction restrictions, potentially disrupting its access to financial institutions, commercial services, and technological infrastructure. At the same...
03 Jun Akhmad, et.al v Bumble Bee Foods: Corporate Accountability for Forced Labour in High Seas Fisheries – Preliminary Observations
...Chinese shipowners in China, provided they have adopted domestic legislation capable of grounding such claims. This also underscores the duty of those states to protect human rights at sea by regulating the extraterritorial conduct of these companies. Some Preliminary Observations The Akhmad, et. al v. Bumble Bee Foods case is, at its core, a test of home state extraterritorial jurisdiction. That the case is being litigated at all is a significant contribution to the issue of remedy for forced labour aboard foreign vessels operating beyond any territorial jurisdiction. While it...
02 May Beyond Territoriality: Symposium on Jurisdictional “Hooks” for (Extraterritorial) Human Rights Obligations – ‘Not-a-State’, a Duty-bearer Nonetheless: Attaching Obligations to Corporations
[Gamze Erdem Türkelli is an assistant research professor in international law, human rights and sustainable development at the Law and Development Research Group, University of Antwerp, the principal investigator of the ERC Starting Grant 2023 funded GENESIS project and a member of the Academic Circle on the Right to Development of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development.] In the latest of the growing string of climate change litigation against corporations, Hugues Falys, a Belgian farmer is taking TotalEnergies, the number one refiner and distributor of fossil fuels...
11 Oct The MV Smyrtos Interdiction: Can Stateless Vessels on the High Seas be Seized and the Crew Prosecuted?
...transport sanctioned Russian oil has exposed a jurisdictional gap between flag State jurisdiction, coastal State jurisdiction, and domestic sanctions regimes. As coastal State jurisdiction generally ends at the territorial sea and sanctions regimes are typically tied to territorial or nationality-based jurisdiction, stateless vessels can fall outside the jurisdiction that would ordinarily regulate conduct at sea. The Smyrtos illustrates the difficulties that this jurisdictional gap creates. While Article 110 provides a clear basis for boarding vessels, such as the Smyrtos, where there is a suspicion that the vessel is without nationality...