Exports of legal services from the United Kingdom to Australia are expected to see big gains under the new trade agreement between the two countries, the U.K.'s Department for International Trade said Aug. 13. Due to guarantees from Australia, British lawyers can continue to provide their services in Australia “using their existing qualifications with more clarity and certainty,” the U.K. said. Covered services include arbitration, conciliation and mediation. Bureaucratic hurdles in obtaining the necessary licenses will be slashed as well, the U.K. said. Eligibility for junior lawyers seeking to work in Australia was increased to 35 years old from 30, the news release said.

Venezuela's Vice President Delcy Eloina Rodriguez Gomez will remain under the European Union's Venezuela sanctions regime after the European Union General Court rejected her application to annul the listings, a July 14 judgment said. The court said the European Council did not err in its finding that Rodriguez undermined democracy and the rule of law in Venezuela and that even if she no longer holds this position, she “remained linked to the regime.” This connection is enough to maintain the sanctions, the court said.

The EU General Court annulled the sanctions listing of Xavier Antonio Moreno Reyes, the secretary general of the National Electoral Council of Venezuela, in a July 14 ruling. The court dropped the sanctions designation after finding that the European Council had not established that the reasons for his listing were "well founded." The sanctions listing was not well-founded since the council did not show that Moreno Reyes approved the decisions of the National Electoral Council.

The European Union General Court dismissed a case from Iranian national Naser Bateni, who sought 250,000 euros in damages from his sanctions listings in 2011, 2012 and 2013, according to a July 7 judgment. Previous decisions from the court had annulled Bateni's listings for those years, finding that the European Council did not establish grounds that justified the designations and prompting the damages claim from Bateni. The court said that the council did not commit a "sufficiently serious breach" -- the standard for providing damages -- by relying on the information available to it when it made Bateni's sanctions determination. "The Council did not depart from the behavior which a normally prudent and diligent administration would have adopted," the judgment said. Bateni's appeal was "dismissed as being partly inadmissible and partly unfounded," according to an unofficial translation of the judgment.

The European Union General Court annulled the 2020 sanctions listings of three former Ukrainian officials. The separate July 7 judgments were for the former Prime Minister Sergej Arbuzov, former Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka and Pshonka's son Artem Pshonka, a former parliament member, according to unofficial translations. The court said the EU Council hadn't proved that Ukrainian authorities respected the individuals' right to effective judicial protection during the criminal proceedings on which the council relied. The Pshonkas were relisted by the council on March 5 and remain subject to EU sanctions, according to two implementing decisions.

The Court of Justice of the European Union found that Venezuela has standing to challenge restrictions made on it by the Council of the EU, according to a June 22 judgment. The CJEU, which overturned a General Court of the European Union ruling that came to the opposite conclusion, said Venezuela can challenge the financial sanctions in European court because the measures are liable to harm Venezuela's economic interests. The General Court originally found that Venezuela had no standing to bring a complaint because it is not an EU member state and had not shown it was directly affected by the sanctions.

The European Union General Court annulled the sanctions listing of Sayed Shamsuddin Borborudi, the former deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, in a June 9 judgment. Borborudi was originally listed under the EU's Iranian nuclear sanctions regime for his position with AEOI and his work with Iran's nuclear program since 2002. The general court said he stopped working for AEOI in 2013, and the European Council failed to show evidence of his continued involvement in Iran's nuclear program. His prior work did not justify a continued listing, the court said.

The Shanghai-based Xin Bai law firm released a May report on sanctions in China (see 2101110042), providing an overview and “practical information” on China’s evolving sanctions regime. The report lays out the framework of China’s sanctions legislation, including what types of sanctions it can impose, the scope of those restrictions, potential penalties, compliance requirements for businesses, and the export licensing and reporting process.

The European Commission in a May 27 opinion clarified two questions on national competent authorities (NCAs) requirements regarding assets frozen under various sanctions. One question asked whether it's legal under the EU's Libyan sanctions to liquidate an EU investment fund compartment that holds a listed entity's shares if the proceeds are then immediately frozen in a segregated EU bank account. The second involves whether it is possible under the Syrian sanctions to transfer a frozen bank account from an EU-based branch to the United Kingdom parent bank. In answering both, the commission focused on ensuring no one could use the assets.

New European Union export controls on dual-use goods meant to promote human rights have the effect of shifting legislative authority from a member state's legislative body to its regulatory arm, Sheppard Mullin said in a May 14 analysis. Officially passed on March 26, the human rights export controls allow, among other things, a member state to impose a prohibition on the exports of items not on the Dual-Use Control List for human rights considerations. Subsequently, other member states are also prohibited from making unlicensed exports of these items if they have been notified by the appropriate competent authorities that the items are intended to be used for human rights violations. “In Member States whose legislation does not empower their licensing authorities unilaterally to impose export licensing requirements on new items, the Regulation effectively transfers legislative authority from one organ of Member State government (the legislature) to another (the export licensing authority),” Sheppard Mullin said.