The Law and Practice of EU Sanctions 1) Introduction Sanctions are a very particular Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union. On the one hand, they are measures of general application, i.e. a tool of EU foreign relations that serves general policy objectives; on the other they are individualized decisions to directly interfere with the fundamental rights of singled-out persons.Sanctions are deployed with exceptional frequency. They are a forceful tool that imposes directly applicable obligations on private parties. More case law exists on sanctions than on any other CFSP policy. This is subject to the caveat that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has so far predominantly reviewed measures that the EU takes under the TFEU to give effect to the CFSP sanctions decisions rather than directly the CFSP decisions themselves. 1 This Chapter explains the exceptionalism of sanctions (Section 2), traces the implications of sanctions for other CFSP policies and other fields of law (Section 3), examines the intrinsic tension between the political objectives of sanctions and their regulatory administrative or even criminal character (Section 4), identifies new trends (Section 5) and makes recommendations on how sanctions should be improved (Section 6). 2) Sanctions are Exceptional Amongst CFSP Public policy can be defined as a set of ideas or principles, or a plan of what to do in particular situations that has been agreed to officially by a group of people, a government, or a political party. 2 The EU has at least the intention to adopt sanctions as a policy that is meant to follow preconceived principles and serves ex ante identifiable objectives. 3 This is