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Sanctions compliance in cross-border disputes: Benjamin Wells sets out pitfalls & practical guidance
- Sanctions now intrude on the mechanics of litigation and arbitration far more often than the label ‘sanctions dispute’ suggests, from instructing counsel to enforcing an award.
- An OFSI licence is not a rubber stamp: applying for the wrong one, or too late, can derail a timetable and expose a firm to strict liability offences.
- Frozen asset scenarios need planning from day one; funding, security for costs and enforcement strategy cannot be left until judgment.
Since 2022, the volume and reach of sanctions litigation touching the English courts and London-seated arbitration has grown sharply, and not only in cases that are overtly about sanctions. A commercial claim, an insurance dispute or a straightforward debt recovery can all be derailed the moment a party, witness, funder or bank turns out to be designated, or owned or controlled by someone who is. Practitioners who treat sanctions as a niche specialism separate from their day-to-day practice increasingly do so at their peril.
