The True Colors of Economic Sanctions

With the emergence of the idea of special purpose vehicles in the context of sanctions programs, recent academic literature has focused its attention on the problems associated with a lack of a legally binding definition of the word sanction and on the efficacy of mechanisms designed to circumvent the imposition and undesirable effects of secondary sanctions. This chapter that features one perspective from the Global South proposes a new reading of international law by providing some factors aimed at questioning the premise on the basis of which sanctions are imposed—in light of an equivalency between law and politics and law and morality—and where eventually both economic sovereignty and the principle of non-intervention are given a new look. The methodology of research is hermeneutical with some elements of phenomenology. It is put forth that, in fact, economic sovereignty and the principle of non-intervention in its different facets must mean above all the protection of human dignity at the level of international norms. It is shown that special purpose vehicles, which so far have proven to be unsuccessful, would then not be needed or even thought of. The outstanding research problems that lie ahead, however, hover around the mix of power politics and the irrationality of States and agents.