Legal, Political, Economic and Practical Dimensions of Sanctions: Insights from the Ljubljana Sanctions Conference

Sanctions have played an important role in relations between States since the emergence of the modern international legal order. However, the recent, unprecedented expansion of sanctioning practice following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has brought to the fore (and in some respects revived) a wide range of legal and practical questions concerning the adoption and implementation of sanctions. This article examines various aspects of international sanctions as discussed at the Ljubljana Sanctions Conference, held on 25 and 26 September 2025 at the Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana. The conference brought together more than 150 participants—including students, academics, practitioners, and representatives of international organisations, courts, State authorities, and the private sector—and provided a unique interdisciplinary forum for discussions on sanctions in international and European law, politics, and economics. Participants discussed, among other issues, the importance of judicial scrutiny of sanctions, the impact of sanctions on the enjoyment of human rights, issues relating to the implementation and enforcement of sanctions, and the intersections of sanctions with investment law and State immunity. The conference also highlighted critical perspectives, which drew attention to the double standards, colonial connotations and geoeconomic consequences of contemporary sanctions policies, and offered insights into future challenges and possible reforms of sanctioning regimes.

Keywords: sanctions, international law, European Union, judicial review, human rights, double standards, interdisciplinarity, Ljubljana Sanctions Conference.