I'll address one of your points on the preventive versus punitive discussion. Second, I'll talk about the importance of symbolism.
What I meant by that is that the classic understanding of criminal prosecution is that, one, it applies to completed conduct. There is some resemblance there with financial sanctions. More broadly, the obligations of banks to engage in other kinds of measures designed to protect the international financial system, such as anti-money laundering and things like that, are designed not only to target completed illicit activity but also to enable the systems to be established that prevent it in the first instance. Therein, I think, lies the primary difference between, for example, criminal prosecutions on the one hand, and sanctions on the other.
Obviously, another important difference is the punishment, the effect. Nobody goes to jail when they're put on a sanctions list per se. Sanctions evasion is a crime, but the result of a sanction is an asset freeze, not a trip to prison. That's obviously the most significant difference in the United States that drives different levels of legal proof and legal review.
On the symbolic point, I don't disagree with Professor Nossal. In some instances, sanctions are symbolic, but I don't think that for that reason they're useless. I think it is important to provide the international community with opportunities to express its collective disgust with particular forms of reprehensible activity and to draw boundaries around what is acceptable international conduct and what is unacceptable international conduct.
If, for example, the regime of Bashar al-Assad could freely access the international financial system, I think that would not be consistent with the horror and disgust with which almost all of us view his behaviour toward his own people. It may or may not be true that sanctions on Syria will ultimately lead to a peaceful resolution of the civil war there, but it will certainly impede the ability of the Assad regime to function and obtain the resources it needs to continue its oppression of its people, and I think the expression of disregard for his actions is appropriate and important.