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Investment Arbitration as Ransom? The EU Sanctions Regime and ‘Administrative Chill’

October 15, 2026

Introduction and Factual Background: Fridman v Luxembourg In February 2022, shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union placed Mikhail Fridman on its sanctions list. The designation subjected the Russian-Israeli businessman’s funds and economic resources to an asset freeze, affecting interests held through Luxembourg - including his 37.9% ownership of the investment group LetterOne. Luxembourg consequently became the focal point in Fridman’s efforts to challenge the sanctions and recover access to his investments. Those efforts would eventually place the country in the position of defending its first known investment treaty arbitration. The arbitration commenced in 2024, with Fridman seeking approximately $16 billion in compensation. His claim invokes the 1989 Bilateral Investment Treaty between the Belgium–Luxembourg Economic Union and the Soviet Union (BLEU – Russia BIT). While the details are not publicly available, his claim is that Luxembourg’s freezing of Fridman’s assets interfered with his investments protected under the BIT, allegedly amounting to indirect expropriation. As such, the proceedings bring Luxembourg’s implementation of EU sanctions measures within…

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Must States Control Their Borders? The Ceuta Crisis and International Law

August 18, 2026

Ceuta, a Spanish city on the North African coast with a population of approximately 80,000, experienced an unprecedented mass influx of people during the last week of July. Around 70,000 people, mostly Moroccan nationals but also persons from other countries, entered the territory irregularly. Although the precise causes remain uncertain, the immediate trigger appears to…

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Trade with the Settlements: How EU Law Points the Way Out of the Deadlock

August 4, 2026

The International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion of 2024 on Legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Terrritory, including East Jerusalem has prompted many scholarly comments on third states’ obligations to react to violations of international law by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) (notably here and…

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The Spanish Supreme Court on Rejection at the Borders of Ceuta and Melilla: What About Human Rights at Sea?

July 30, 2026

Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish Autonomous Cities located on the northern coast of Africa and bordering Morocco. They occupy a singular position within the European legal order. They simultaneously constitute the external borders of Spain, the European Union, and the Schengen Area, making them the only land frontiers between Europe and Africa. For decades, these borders have been…

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How the war in Ukraine impacts the law and politics of security guarantees

July 15, 2026

The paradoxical revival of security guarantees Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has revived the concept of security guarantees. Their content and scope have been central to scholarly and political debates about Kyiv’s resistance to the Russian aggression (see here and here). Yet, this revival highlights a…

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