Beyond Freezing?

Article on The EU’s Targeted Sanctions against Russia's Political and Economic Elites, and their Implementation and Further Tightening in Germany

In the course of the European Union’s sanctions implied in reaction of the illegal Russian warfare in Ukraine all private assets of ca. 1,200 individuals, most of them of Russian nationality, have been frozen within EU territory. In a new article Michael Kilchling provides a general overview of the concept of the EU's so-called targeted ("smart") sanctions which are widely unknown to a greater public, explaining also the origins and legal rules, and the adaption of this instrument to the current war. Current plans for a further tightening of such measures as proposed by the European Commission, thus promoting the seizure and confiscation of such properties, are critically examined. Such measures which have already been made available in Germany by legal amendment of May 2022, raise serious fundamental rights concerns, as long as confiscation would target assets that have not been illegally, i.e., criminally acquired.      

The article “Beyond Freezing?- The EU’s Targeted Sanctions against Russia's Political and Economic Elites, and their Implementation and Further Tightening in Germany” appeared in eucrim, an online journal that offers a Europe-wide platform for European criminal law and invites both practitioners and academics to engage in discussion.

Read the full article here: www.eucrim.eu/articles/beyond-freezing