Restrictive measures (sanctions) are a tool of the European Union's common security and foreign policy, whereby the European Union modifies the policy or conduct of a state, part of a state, a government, an entity, or individuals. They are adopted by a Council decision, which in some cases is implemented by the adoption of a regulation. Regulations are usually general legal acts, as they apply to an abstract and unspecified group of addressees. However, in the case of regulations imposing restrictive measures against individuals, the question arises whether such regulations are truly of a general legal nature since they also contain a list of the individuals against whom restrictive measures are to be taken. The present Master's thesis addresses this very question, firstly by introducing the difference between the concepts of sanctions and restrictive measures, describing the regimes of restrictive measures, and introducing the historical development of the emergence of restrictive measures in the European Union. The thesis then describes the process of adopting restrictive measures and introduces the notion of targeted restrictive measures, followed by a distinction between the nature of legal acts as general and individual, and an overview of the implications of classifying rules imposing restrictive measures against individuals as general or hybrid in legal nature. The thesis concludes with a review of selected case law of the General Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union. The review analyses the case law and highlights the key points and inconsistencies in the decisions.
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