Unilateral Sanctions: Outlook for Indian Businesses

There is increasing debate surrounding the unprecedented use of unilateral sanctions in recent years (e.g. by the US, the EU, Japan, China, and Russia) — specifically, their legality under international law (as countermeasures), legality under WTO law (as national security exceptions), their architecture and overall market-distorting effect, and investment protection and/​or administrative disputes against (allegedly wrongful) freezing of assets and/​or listing of businesses and individuals in sanctions lists (see, pending disputes, Fridman v. Luxembourg UNCITRAL (2024), Shvidler v. Secretary of State UKSC (2024)). On its part, India has rarely used unilateral sanctions (except previous trade prohibitions against Pakistan, Fiji, and Nepal) and has abided by unilateral sanctions at the state level—e.g. by complying with price caps on oil purchases and refusing to deal with (an increasing number of) sanctioned oil vessels/​tankers.