New Technologies in International Law / Tymofeyeva, Crhák et al.

4.3 EU C yber S anctions :

C urrent I nternational L egal C ontroversies and F uture P rospects

By Nicolas Sabján (Comenius University Bratislava)

Introduction We live in the “age of sanctions”. The relevant sanctions databases show the steep increase in the imposition of sanctions since the end of the Cold war 513 and the EU has contributed significantly to this state of affairs. Hence the description of the EU as a “sanctioning power”. 514 Combined with this, a further phenomenon is digitalisation that has had a profound effect on every aspect of our societies, including public international law. It is precisely digital technologies and their effect that led to the decision of some states to create a relatively new cyber sanctions regime as a specific reaction to these changes. Another feature of our current predicament is the profound geopolitical change that has been taking place after the End of history period of 90’s. Starting with the first point, we have arguably entered a period of multipolarity, 515 characterised by the shift of power from the West to the ‘Rest’, or some sort of convergence. Secondly, many have pointed out that this multipolarity entails a geo-economic element, i. e. the economisation of security and securitisation of economy. 516 In a somewhat similar description, Mark Leonard contends that we live in an age of ‘unpeace’, 517 which is a particularly apt description for cyberspace. Furthermore, weaponisation of interdependence is expanding, for instance in the form of (cyber) sanctions. Indeed, interdependence is in a sense a necessary condition for the successful and effective imposition of sanctions. The background condition that gives rise and co-determines the abovementioned is the ongoing great power competition. Without making this condition inevitable or deterministic, we agree with the claim that great-power competition has not returned (as it is often argued), because it never actually went away. 518 Against this background, we shall explore in this article the intersection of the three abovementioned trends that are unfolding on the international level, while laying emphasis on the phenomenon of digitalisation and its relationship to sanctions law (focusing on EU cyber sanctions), whilst discussing some of the international legal 513 Felbermayr G et al, ‘The Global Sanctions Data Base’ (2020) 129 European Economic Review 1. 514 With several country-specific and thematic sanctions in place. See E EU Sanctions Map accessed 31 December 2023. 515 Acharya A, Estevadeordal A and Goodman LW, ‘Multipolar or Multiplex? Interaction Capacity, Global Cooperation and World Order’ (2023) 99 International Affairs 2339. 516 Roberts A, Choer Moraes H, Ferguson V, ‘Toward a Geoeconomic Order in International Trade and Investment’ (2019) 22 Journal of International Economic Law 655. 517 Leonard M, The Age of Unpeace: How Connectivity Causes Conflict (Penguin, 2022). 518 Nexon DH, ‘Against Great Power Competition’ ( Foreign Affairs , 26 June 2023) accessed 31 December 2023.

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