Sanctions 2025

AUSTRALIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Dennis Miralis, Jack Dennis, Henry Yu and Darren Pham, Nyman Gibson Miralis

“Sanctions Act”) and the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations 2011 (Cth) (the “Sanctions Regulations”). Under Section 10 of the Sanctions Act, the regulations may make provisions relating to several prohibitions, including: • proscription of persons or entities; • restriction or prevention of uses of, dealings with, and the making available of assets; • restriction or prevention of the supply, sale, or transfer of goods or services; and • restriction or prevention of the procurement of goods or services. In other words, the main types of sanctions employed by Australia are: • designation of specific individuals or entities as subject to financial sanctions (eg, prohibiting mak - ing assets available to that person, as well as asset freezes); • travel bans on certain persons, preventing them from entering or transiting through Australia; • restrictions on trade in or procurement of goods and services (eg, prohibiting the export or the import of specific goods or services); • restrictions on engaging in commercial activities or dealing with assets (eg, purchasing shares, grant - ing IP rights, or establishing a joint venture); and • designation of specific vessels as sanctioned vessels, including preventing them from entering Australia. Simultaneous Sanctions Sanctions can be passed under both regimes, such as the current (as of June 2025) regimes against North Korea, Iran, Libya, Sudan, South Sudan, and Syria. 1.4.2 Scope of Sanctions Who must comply with the sanctions depends on the specific regulations relating to the sanction regime. Generally speaking, sanctions regulations have extra - territorial effect. Therefore, the sanctions law applies to activities that occur: • in Australia;

• on board an Australian aircraft or an Australian ship; or • by Australian citizens living or bodies corporates registered/incorporated by or under Australian law (whether in Australia, overseas, or on board a domestic or foreign vessel or aircraft). 1.4.3 Domestic and/or Supranational Measures Both sets of sanctions are imposed at the (domestic) federal level in Australia. Although the COTUNA sanctions regimes only relate to sanctions passed by the UNSC, as a dualist system, the Australian government must still pass domestic legislation for each sanction to give it effect under Australian law. DFAT is broadly responsible for administering and enforcing the sanctions. To this end, DFAT established ASO on 1 January 2022 to sit within DFAT’s Regula - tory Legal Division in the Security, Legal and Consular Group. ASO is the Australian government’s sanctions regulator. As the regulator, ASO: • provides guidance on Australian sanctions law to regulated entities and to the public, government and relevant parties; • processes applications for, and issues, sanctions permits (see 2.3 Licensing ); • works with the public to promote compliance and help prevent breaches; • works in partnership with other government agen - cies to monitor compliance; and • supports corrective and enforcement action by law enforcement agencies in cases of suspected non- compliance (see 2.2 Enforcement ). 2.2 Enforcement 2.2.1 Enforcement Responsibilities ASO is the primary agency responsible for the enforce - ment of Australian sanctions law. It does so by work - ing with a network of Australian partners, including the 2. Overview of Regulatory Field 2.1 Primary Regulators

CHAMBERS.COM