‘Economic sanctions in private international law’

Abstract

‘The subject of the presentation will be the analysis of the relationship between economic sanctions and private international law. Economic sanctions are an instrument of foreign policy. They may, however, affect the legal – first of all contractual – relations between private parties, when, for example, one of the parties refuses to perform a contract, because performance would violate an embargo or a financial restriction. In such a case, the court or arbitration tribunal seised has to decide whether to give effect or not to the economic sanction. It is private international law that functions as a ‘filter’ and transmits economic sanctions having a public law origin to the realm of private law. The goal is to examine how private international law rules of the EU can influence the enforcement of economic sanctions’