CLAS/CSE Hosts Panel on Efficacy of Sanctions
On February 27, 2023, Boston University’s Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) and Center for the Study of Europe (CSE), both affiliated centers of BU’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, hosted an event on the effectiveness of sanctions in inhibiting authoritarianism, using case studies from Hungary, Poland, and Venezuela.
The event’s panel featured several experts in law and political science: Bojan Bugarič, Professor of Law at the University of Sheffield; Fernanda Nicola, Professor of Law at American University; and Javier Corrales, Dwight W. Morrow Professor of Political Science at Amherst College. This panel was moderated by Daniela Caruso, BU Professor of Law.
Panelists discussed several reasons why sanctions fail; Bugarič, who called himself a ‘sanctions skeptic,’ discussed the limited judicial tools the European Union has available to utilize for sanctions against either Hungary or Poland. He listed several options — EU Article 7, pre-Article procedure, European Court of Justice — and posited that the tools were either too harsh or too lenient to have any efficacy.
Nicola examined the legality of sanctions and lawsuits against authoritarian governments in more detail. She criticized the timeliness and type of sanctions used in the case studies of Poland and Hungary, arguing that the sanctions came too late to prevent democratic backsliding and were too easy for the governments to wiggle around. Nicola advocated for legal coalitions instead to put constant pressure on the government and to monitor any violations of the law.
Corrales connected the previous arguments to his case study in Venezuela, where he contended that sanctions ultimately backfired. He explained that the Maduro administration was readily able to transfer the costs of sanctions to society rather than the government and military, which fueled a staggering humanitarian crisis and a new generation of refugees fleeing from destitution. He echoed Nicola’s earlier sentiment about the timeliness of sanctions, as he argued that they came too late to halt Venezuela’s slide into authoritarianism.
CLAS provides students with a versatile and robust vehicle to develop an in-depth and interdisciplinary understanding of the Latin American region. The program offers students a wide variety of regionally-focused courses in Latin America, taught by various academic departments. The program’s interdisciplinary nature provides the necessary breadth and depth for students to understand the complexities and remarkable diversity of Latin America, defined as the 20 independent countries in the Western Hemisphere south of the United States with Spanish, French, or Portuguese as their official languages. Learn more about this center on the CLAS website.
CSE’s mission is to promote understanding of Europe through its cultural heritage; its political, economic, and religious histories; its art, literature, music, and philosophy; as well as through its recent emergence as a new kind of international form through the European Union (EU). Operationally, the center provides a focal point and institutional support for the study of Europe across Boston University through the coordination of teaching missions, support of research, community-building among faculty and students, and outreach beyond the University. Visit the center’s website for more.