United States Sanctions Against Individuals in Republic of Srpska and Legal Remedies

Abstract

The challenges posed by unilateral sanctions on the Sustainable Developmental Goals, financial stability, the service provision sector, and human rights have been increasingly debated in recent years. This research focuses on the economic sanctions enacted by the United States of America (USA) targeting individuals in the Western Balkans region, or specifically in the Republic of Srpska. The research is framed in this way for several reasons, including primarily the ongoing Stabilization and Association Process, supported by the effective Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) between the European Communities, their Member States, and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). This has imposed the necessity to consider the relevant EU legislation governing sanctions and ways to navigate their adverse consequences. In addition, multilateral sanctions targeting individuals — such as those enacted by the UNSC — have been recognized under international law as part of the collective security framework provided by the UN Charter, while unilateral individual sanctions do not have the same international legal standing. Without intending to evaluate directly these sanctions in terms of international law or human rights law, irrespective of how it is presented, we have identified their key characteristics: they target top-ranking officials, with the legislative activities of the National Assembly as one of the grounds for sanctioning, and they affect untargeted entities including the business and NGO sectors. Those characteristics have decided the inquiry into the legal remedies available. In that sense, we have addressed legal remedies available to BiH and the Republic of Srpska, with a view to specific remedies available to the sanctioned individuals including private persons and legal entities.