Il regolamento di blocco dell’Unione europea alle sanzioni secondarie statunitensi

The application of extraterritorial secondary sanctions by the United States has led a considerable number of States to adopt blocking statutes in order to neutralize, in their territory, the unwanted effects of measures which are largely perceived as an abusive exercise of sovereign powers. Following this trend, the former European Community enacted the “blocking regulation”, which forbids private entities and national authorities to comply with the extraterritorial sanctions of the United States. This prohibition, however, has been frequently disregarded by the addressees of the regulation, that tend to give prevalence to the more effective sanctioning regime of the United States. Against this backdrop, the article aims at demonstrating that the application of the blocking regulation and, more in general, of blocking statutes, is deemed necessary due to their role in the characterisation of secondary sanctions as wrongful acts. The second part of the work is dedicated, instead, to the elaboration of strategies to maximize the horizontal application of the regulation as well as other blocking legislations, hence strengthening the prohibition they embody on both national and international levels.