SYMPTOM OR CAUSE OF DEATH? MAGNITSKY'S LAW AS A PARAMETER OF THE DUAL CRISIS OF CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL LAW

Abstract

The Magnitsky Act, originally established as an instrument to hold individuals accountable for serious human rights violations and corruption in contexts of international impunity, has paradoxically become a parameter for the crisis of contemporary international law, notably in the current rise of autocracies and their instrumentalization by the Trump administration. These acts ultimately highlight the vicissitudes of the very health of international law, with the decline of global coordination and the abandonment of the post-1945 promise of an order based on sovereignty and multilateralism. In this context, this study begins with this panorama by analyzing the recent sanction imposed by the United States, through the Magnitsky Act, on Justice Alexandre de Moraes of the Brazilian Supreme Court, in the full exercise of his jurisdictional functions in a consolidated democracy. The exceptional and biased application of the law highlights the politicization of sanctions enforcement and the structural fragility of 21st-century international law.