The various sanctions packages introduced by the EU following the Russian invasion in Ukraine in February 2022 were unprecedented on multiple levels. Although sanctions have been part and parcel of both EU and Dutch law for decades, they have never had an impact comparable to the ‘Russia sanctions’. On the one hand, this was the result of the unprecedented scope of the various sanctions with certain measures being introduced which had until then been unthinkable. On the other hand, economic ties between Russia and the Netherlands were simply much deeper. As a result of both these factors, the Russia sanctions were also the first sanctions which affected the work of hundreds of Dutch lawyers rather than the odd lawyer with a client who wants to do business in Iran or North-Korea. This article will discuss the impact of the Russia sanctions on the permissibility of legal services provided by Dutch lawyers. It will do so by first describing the general legal framework on both the Dutch and EU level, followed by a discussion of how sanctions are interpreted and the role of guidance and fundamental rights in doing so. These introductory paragraphs are necessary to properly understand the core paragraphs of this article which discuss the EU’s Russia sanctions and legal services, the circumvention prohibition and the due diligence obligations for Dutch lawyers. The article will conclude with some closing remarks.

De beslissing om een entiteit op een sanctielijst te plaatsen vereist weinig onderbouwing. Desondanks blijken er geregeld problemen te zijn met het gebruikte bewijs of is het tijdsverloop onvoldoende meegewogen. Het loont dan ook op te komen tegen plaatsingsbeslissingen. Op dit moment echter leunt de kwaliteit van beslissingen te veel op de mate waarin tegen de plaatsingsbeslissing wordt opgekomen. Daardoor bestaat de vrees dat veel entiteiten op onvoldoende onderbouwde gronden op sanctielijsten zijn beland.