Lawfare – the Instrumentalization of Western Courts for Economic Power Politics

The concept of lawfare emerged some twenty years ago as “the strategic use of litigation to intimidate an adversary”. This unsavory practice mirrors the broader practice of extrajudicial jurisdiction in the United States. The EU started applying it in 2022. It is illegal under the UN Charter, but is used systematically in some 42 countries around the world. France, in particular, has suffered dramatically from it. We have seen CEOs locked up in solitary confinement to extract evidence against their employers. In addition, the uncontrolled proliferation of plea bargains has forced companies to testify against themselves. The experience of activist judges pursuing their own agendas prompted Shell to move its headquarters from the Netherlands to London. What is the current state of the Western judiciary in light of major geopolitical shifts, such as the bilateral rapprochement between the US and Russia and the militarization of the EU and other European states? How should we formulate practical findings to submit them to the Russian judicial branch of government?