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Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP have published an article in the Journal of International Banking Law and Regulation examining the development of English sanctions case law and the growing challenge of Russian enforcement proceedings.
Russia is now among the most heavily sanctioned countries in the world. Since 2014, the United Kingdom, European Union, United States and other jurisdictions have maintained restrictive sanctions measures in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and have considerably expanded those measures following the full-scale invasion of the Ukraine in 2022. While these regimes are broadly aligned, there are important differences between them meaning that lawful action in one jurisdiction may be unlawful in another jurisdiction.
These differences have created significant challenges for parties involved in sanctions-related disputes, particularly financial institutions. Since 2022, many parties appearing before the English courts have found themselves caught between the risk of criminal prosecution or civil penalty for breach of applicable sanctions regimes, and the risk of civil liability for failing to honour contractual obligations owed to counterparties. This tension has not always been easy for the English courts to resolve with some decisions taking the market by surprise.
In our article we examine how the English courts have approached these issues, including balancing the integrity of contractual obligations against the public interest in maintaining an effective sanctions regime, and the development of certain defences to civil claims for breach of contractual obligations. We also consider the increasingly important international dimension of these disputes. In particular, how litigation involving Russian counterparties is increasingly migrating from the English courts to the Russian courts and how Russian counterparties are obtaining Russian judgments which conflict with judgments of the English courts. This, in turn, is creating the prospect of enforcement battles which may extend to other jurisdictions where Western parties hold assets, making adopting a multi-jurisdictional strategy an increasingly important feature of sanctions-related litigation.
The article can be found here: English sanctions litigation and Russian enforcement battles. This material was first published by Thomson Reuters, trading as Sweet & Maxwell, 5 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5AQ, in the August 2026 edition of JIBLR and is reproduced by agreement with the publishers. For further details, please see the publishers’ website.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
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