Dana Astra IOOO v FCDO: Challenging UK sanctions designations
Corporate Crime analysis: The Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed Dana Astra’s appeal against the High Court’s findings that Dana Astra, as a Belarus registered company without any business or assets in the UK, was not within the UK’s jurisdiction for the purposes of Article 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). While Dana Astra advanced interesting and novel arguments relating to extraterritorial jurisdiction within the context of sanctions, these were rejected decisively, affirming the European Court of Human Right’s (ECtHR’s) well established restrictive approach to jurisdiction. Written by Angelika Hellweger, legal director, and Ulrich Schmidt, associate, at Rahman Ravelli.