Politics of Sanctions in International Relations: Between Rule of Law and Соercion

On the 10^th of December 2021, the HSE Faculty of Law convened the International conference in memory of Professor Igor Lukashuk ‘Politics of Sanctions in International Relations: Between Rule of Law and Соercion’.

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On the 1^st of June, 2021, Professor Igor Lukashuk would have celebrated his 95^th anniversary. His name was recognized worldwide: a Professor, Doctor of Legal Sciences, Honoured Scientist of the Russian Federation, Laureate of Russian state prize, holder of the F.F. Martens Award from the Russian Academy of Sciences. He used to work at the Saratov Law Institute, Kiev State University named after T.G. Shevtchenko, for 20 years was the Head of the International Law Sector at the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences. From 1995 to 2002 Igor Lukashuk was a member of the UN International Law Commission. In addition, he was a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, participated in the UN General Assembly and intergovernmental conferences, including the Vienna Conference on the law of treaties. Igor Lukashuk gave lectures in 17 foreign universities and at the Hague Academy of International Law. A remarkable scholar, he nurtured several generations of students: under his supervision four Doctors of Legal Sciences and 68 Candidates of Legal Sciences (PhD) successfully defended their dissertations.  

Among his Ph.D. students are three leading professors of the HSE School of International Law: Daria Boklan, Eduard Ivanov and Vera Rusinova. They came forward with an initiative to hold the conference, and were supported by their colleagues in Russia and abroad.

The conference was devoted to the resort both of States and international organizations to unilateral coercive measures and international sanctions – one of the main legal and political challenges of modern international relations.

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The first session, which was dedicated to the scholarly legacy of Prof. Lukashuk, hosted his former students, now HSE professors, as well as the President of the Russian international law association Anatoly Kapustin, honoured professor of Tallinn University Rein Mullerson, judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea Roman Kolodkin, senior research fellow of international law sector of the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences Galina Shinkaretskaya, Head of the International and European law chair of Kazan State University Adel Abdullin, Head of the Laboratory of international and comparative studies of Tyumen State University Sergey Marochkin.

The Dean of the HSE Faculty of Law Vadim Vinogradov highlighted in his speech, that it is necessary to escape the situation when states will use unilateral sanctions exclusively as a means to advance their political and economic interests. He also drawed attention to the lawfulness of these measures and the importancy of this issue for Russia.

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Larissa van den Herik, Professor of Public International Law, Leiden University, delivered the keynote presentation on the ‘Politics of Sanctions and International Law’.

After that, the conference continued with three consecutive thematic sections – ‘Sanctions as a Response to Cyberoperations’, ‘Sanctions vs. Responsibility: from Theory to Practice’, and ‘Responsibility and Coercion in International Trade’. During the latter section, a book launch was held. The monograph ‘Rethinking, Repackaging and Rescuing World Trade Law in the Post-Pandemic Era’, coauthored and coedited by HSE Professor Daria Boklan, was warmly welcomed by the audience.

This day was reach on the new ideas, proposals and approaches. The level and depth of the presentations and discussions allows designating this conference as one of the brightest academic events on Internaitonal Law of the passing year.