Is there a case that seizing and repurposing Russian state assets can be done lawfully and can Canada, specifically, legally do so?
Advertisement 5In situations where a state is breaching international law, affected states are allowed to employ countermeasures, which means they can break some other legal obligation owed to the breaching country for the limited purpose of making that state change its behaviour.“self-help” remedy
, and is similar to the familiar criminal law notion of self-defence — if you are assaulting me or my property, I am permitted to fight back to defend myself. In this instance, countries holding Russian state assets are entitled to suspend their usual obligation to keep these assets immune.Article content
Now, even if states take these assets once they’re no longer immune, the countermeasures are supposed to end once the original breach has stopped. However, once the war is over, Russia will clearly have to pay legal reparations to Ukraine. The Multilateral Asset Transfer plan would see states transfer these seized Russian assets into escrow accounts until an international commission can be established to determine how much Russia will have to pay Ukraine.Several pathways
Of course, for Canada to do this, the use of countermeasures would also have to comply with Canadian law.Advertisement 7
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