Entering the Buffer Zone between Legality and Illegality: EU Autonomous Sanctions under International Law

The present Chapter offers an international law perspective on the sanctioning power of the EU, analysing the autonomous sanctions’ regime. In particular, the Chapter tries to answer to the main research question that arises from an overview of EU autonomous sanctions: their legality under international law. Building on the current status of international law concerning the law of sanctions, the Chapter develops the argument that to defend the legality of autonomous sanctions one could rely on the theory of third-party countermeasures, which, however, is not firmly established in international law.