Economic Sanctions and the Law: Goals, Enforcement, and Procedural and Substantive Limits
On February 21, 2025, The Fordham International Law Journal Volume XLVIII hosted its Spring Symposium. Focusing on economic sanctions, the ILJ brought together leading international and domestic scholars, legal practicioners, and former government officials to discuss how international law empowers, channels, and limits the use of economic sanctions, one of the most important tools of national and international security policy today.
Please see below for the video of the event, which is now featured on the European Journal of International Law and GlobalSanctions.com.
Panels & Speakers:
9:00 - 10:30 AM | Panel 1: A Broad Perspective: The Historical and Changing Purposes of Sanctions: Peter Harrell, Nonresident Scholar, American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; former White House Senior Director for International Economics; former Member, National Security and National Economic Councils; former White House representative to CFIUS; former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Counter Threat Finance and Sanctions, U.S. State Department. J. Benton Heath, Associate Professor of Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law; former Attorney-Advisor, U.S. State Department. Dr. Devika Hovell, Associate Professor of Public International Law, London School of Economics; Editor, EJIL:Talk blog and Fixed Term Member, Matrix Chambers; Former Associate to Justice Hayne at the High Court of Australia; Former clerk at the International Court of Justice at the Hague; Editorial Board member, European Journal of International Law. Dr. Nicholas Mulder, Assistant Professor and Milstein Faculty Fellow, Cornell University; Author, The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War (Yale University Press, 2022). Moderator: Thomas H. Lee, Leitner Family Professor of International Law, Fordham Law School
10:30 - 10:45 AM | Break 10:45 AM - 12:15 PM | Panel 2: The Implementation of Sanctions, and Criminal and Civil Enforcement: Christine Abely, Assistant Professor of Law, New England School of Law - Boston; Author, The Russia Sanctions: The Economic Response to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine (Cambridge University Press, 2023); Member, American Society of International Law. Edward C. O’Callaghan, Partner, Cahill Gordon & Reindell LLP (Washington, D.C.); former Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States; former Acting Deputy Attorney General and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice; former Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the National Security Division, U.S. Department of Justice; former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and co-chief of the Terrorism and National Security Unit. Thomas P. Feddo, Founder, The Rubicon Advisors, LLC; former first Assistant Secretary for Investment Security, Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) at U.S. Treasury Department; former Assistant Director for Enforcement, Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) at the U.S. Treasury Department; former Special Assistant to the General Counsel of the Navy, former Majority Oversight Counsel, United States House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee. Erik Woodhouse, Partner, Crowell & Moring LLP (Washington, D.C.); former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Counter Threat Finance and Sanctions, U.S. State Department. Moderator: Associate Dean Pamela Bookman, Academic Affairs and Professor of Law, Fordham Law School
12:15 - 2:00 PM | Lunch & Keynote Address: Addar Levi, Former Acting General Counsel, United States Department of Treasury; former General Counsel, the Obama Foundation; former Attorney-Advisor, White House Counsel’s Office; Member, American Law Institute.
2:00 - 3:30 PM | Panel 3: The Foreseen and Unforeseen Consequences of Sanctions: Zohra Ahmed, Associate Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law. Dr. Joshua Andresen, Associate Professor of National Security and Foreign Relations Law, University of Surrey (U.K.); former Senior Policy Advisor for Europe, Russia, and Central Asia, Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes - U.S. Department of Treasury; former Attorney-Advisor, U.S.State Department. Dr. Alexandra Hofer, Assistant Professor in Public International Law, Utrecht University School of Law (Netherlands); Affiliated Researcher, Ghent Rolin-Jaequemyns International Law Institute (GRILI); former Research Fellow, Centre for Studies and Research in International Law, Hague Academy of International Law. Moderator: Harlan G. Cohen, Professor of Law, Fordham Law School
3:45 - 5:15 PM | Panel 4: The Existing and Emerging Limits on Sanctions Andrew C. Adams, Partner, Steptoe LLP (New York); Inaugural Director of Task Force KleptoCapture, U.S. Department of Justice; former acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the National Security Division, U.S. Department of Justice; former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and co-chief of the Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit. Maya Lester, KC, King’s Counsel, Barrister at Brick Court Chambers (London, U.K.); Member, Bar of England & Ireland; Co-Founder and editor of www.GlobalSanctions.com (leading online sanctions resource); Star individual for sanctions in UK legal directories; ranked in Chambers 100 UK Bar List; 2024 “International Silk of the Year” Nominee, Legal 500; Chair of Bar Sanctions working group; Advisory Board Member, Centre for European Law at King’s College London; Trustee of Alliance of Lawyers at Risk; Co-Founder, Human Rights Lawyers Association. Dr. Nathanael Tilahun, Associate Professor of International Law, University of Essex Law (U.K.); Advisory Board member, PoliSync (Switzerland); Advisory Board member, Centre for International Policy Engagement; Core Expert Group member, Advancing Humanitarianism through Sanctions Reform (AHSR). Moderator: Andrew Kent, Joseph M. McLaughlin Professor of Law, Fordham Law School