International law experts approve confiscation of russian assets

A group of legal experts has endorsed the seizure of $300 billion worth of frozen assets of the russian central bank, as such actions are permitted under international law given the scale of russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The letter, which was sent to the capitals of the G7 countries, was signed by ten experts and practitioners of international law from Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.

"We have concluded that under international law, it would be legitimate for states that have frozen russian state assets to take additional countermeasures against russia, given its ongoing violation of the most fundamental norms of international law, in the form of the transfer of russian state assets as compensation for losses that have arisen as a direct result of russia's illegal actions," the experts wrote.

Among the signatories to the letter are Harold Hongju Coe, a Yale Law School professor and former dean who also served as legal counsel to the U.S. State Department under the Obama administration, and Philip Zelikow of the Hoover Institution, an attorney and former career diplomat who has worked in government, including as a strategic advisor to the Biden administration. Seven other signatories were scholars and practitioners of international law from Europe and one from Japan.

Although the analysis was requested by interested governments, including some G7 countries, the authors wrote that "none of us are acting on behalf of sponsors or clients."

According to the legal scholars, the confiscation would be illegal if it were used against an innocent state that has not violated its international obligations. Such actions are permissible, they argue, if they are taken against the offending state and are aimed at persuading it to cease its unlawful behavior and fulfill its obligation to compensate victims or, if persuasion fails, to achieve this compensation through the offending state's assets.

Source: Bloomberg