Diverging narratives of economic sanctions: Some observations on the EU sanctions against Russia

The economic sanctions can be approached from two different perspectives. In the narrative of the international law and international economic law the economic sanctions are legal instruments applied exceptionally with the aim of implementing objectives of foreign and security policy. The legality of the measures requires here the justification of legal concepts (e.g. the essential security of the sanctioning country). From the perspective of the international relations and foreign policy, however, the legality of the measure plays no significant role. The justification of the sanction is based on the pure interest of the country, therefore the legality is only a formal question of how to adopt and implement the measures and not a prerequisite for the justification itself. The paper intends to examine the legal narrative of economic sanctions in order to establish the criteria of their legality and to apply this concept to the sanctions imposed by the European Union on the Russian Federation. The paper will argue, however, that the economic sanctions are Janus-faced instruments of international relations: even though it can be interpreted by way of external trade policy and law considerations, in practical terms, their fundamental objectives unavoidably stretch beyond the legal narrative and may appear to merely serve the foreign policy of the country