The concepts of a legal sanction and sanction regime : a EU blueprint for international criminal and financial law and a constitutional challenge for the EU financial sectors

Abstract

This Thesis aims to define the concept of a legal ‘sanction’ and develop the sanction theory and principles that are connected with this definition. Part I of this Thesis therefore establishes the theoretical, constitutional and international architecture for sanctions, whereby the philosophical and traditional views on punishment from the old theoretical discussions of the justification for punishment is providing the broader context for the legal concept of sanctions; the case-law of European Court of Human Rights on Articles 6 and 7 and Article 4 of Protocol 7 to the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) is providing the main foundation for establishing the constitutional concept of sanctions by providing the architecture and principles for constructing a legal concept of sanctions; and the international standards and principles on sanctioning which the EU Member States has agreed to comply with under the Financial Sector Assessment Program, a task jointly charged on the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, is providing the international aspects on financial sanctions. The conclusions made in Part I will be applied in Part II of this Thesis, which will discuss the EU regimes of sanctions in the financial sector by first establishing the concept of ‘sanction regimes’ and determine its structures and principles. Second, the general requirements for the imposition of sanctions will then be established and discussed just as the constitutional framework will be applied in order to assess the classification of the EU financial law. Third, the specific types of EU financial sanctions will then be analysed and discussed by the application of the Engel-test and the principles establishing the constitutional concept of sanctions. Finally, the last Chapter will bring it all together and answer the research questions examined in this Thesis.