Online lecture On Public
International law
By
Rupaksh sharma
Faculty, ICFAI Law school
Sanctions in International law
A sanction is a penalty imposed in order to enforce
obedience to a rule of law.
Sanctions in international law include measures,
procedures and expedients for exerting pressures upon
a State to comply with its international legal obligations.
A question arises as to what sanctions international
law provides to those States which violate the rules.
Sanctions in the modem international law are quite
different from those which existed in the classical
international law.
continue
The latter provided the sanction generally in the form
of war and reprisals. However, at present, these
measures in most of the cases have become
unlawful.
Sanctions applied by the aggrieved States are
required to be lawful and they must conform to the
provisions of U.N. Charter
Sanctions may be applied by the States individually or
collectively by international organizations:
Sanctions by States: A State may apply sanction by
means of self-help.
The action taken in self-help is required to be in strict
compliance with the provisions of the Charter. Under Art.
2(4) of the Charter, the members of U.N. have undertaken
that they shall respect the territorial integrity and political
independence of each other and shall not use force
against each other.
Use of armed forces in self-help in response to
international wrongful acts not involving armed attack is
forbidden.
Collective sanctions:
International organisations which States themselves
have established have been empowered to take
collective sanction against State.
Under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, if there
is a threat to the international peace and security or an
aggression has taken place, the Security Council can take
necessary action to maintain or restore international
peace and security.
The Charter postulates economic, financial and military
sanctions.
The economic and financial sanctions
The economic and financial sanctions include the
complete or partial severance of economic relations
against a State or the application of embargo.
Military sanctions may include demonstrations, blockade, and other
operations by air, sea or land forces of the members of U.N. Political
sanctions (not expressly mentioned in the Charter) include appeal to
a State to do or not to do certain acts, suspension of an exercise of
the rights and privileges of the membership of U.N., and expulsion
from the U.N. membership. Besides the U.N., specialised agencies of
it such as ILO, WHO, IPO and ITO have also been authorised to take
action against State.
Example
For instance, constitution of the International Labour
Organization lays down a procedure for dealing with
complaints regarding a failure by a member State to
secure the effective observance of an International
Labour Convention binding it. The decisions of the
International Court of Justice are binding upon the
parties to the dispute. Article 94 of the U.N. also provides
that if a party to the dispute does not follow the Court's
decision, the other party may approach the Security
Council which can take necessary measures to ensure
the implementation of the decision.
Public opinion:
Public opinion: Public opinion is the ultimate sanction
behind international law and for that matter any law.
Public opinion becomes adverse with the application of U.
N. sanctions against a State. It was the world public
opinion which forced the United Kingdom and France to
pull out their troops from the Suez Canal in 1956.
