stylistic:style_transfer
Confiscation of assets

In September 2023, the Renew Democracy Initiative (RDI) released a report (lead author Laurence Tribe) which asserted that, with respect to the confiscation of Russian assets, the countermeasure being taken is a suspension of the sovereign immunity that Russia normally enjoys. The report insists that the requirement of reversibility does not apply to the frozen assets but to the suspension of immunity, which can be reversed when Russia comes into compliance with its international obligations. Others have agreed. A Stanford Law Review article calls this "...too clever by half. The reversibility requirement cannot be circumvented so easily." It argues that since transferring the assets to Ukraine is not reversible the countermeasure does not serve to induce compliance, undercutting "the very raison d'être of countermeasures doctrine." Reversibility is a key requirement, the article insists, without which there is likely to be a "rapidly proliferating unlawfulness" bringing many undesirable consequences.