To my mind, the best way to assess them is by the reactions from the other side, the reactions of those targeted by laws like the Sergei Magnitsky Law, in this case Vladimir Putin's regime in the Kremlin.
I myself have been poisoned twice by Putin's FSB, Russia's federal security service, precisely because of my work on the Sergei Magnitsky law. The 25-year jail sentence I received in April was handed down by Sergei Podoprigorov, the same judge who sent Sergei Magnitsky to jail. That was a very clear message from the Kremlin.
There are few things those people hate more than such targeted sanctions. For years and years, those people wanted to steal money from us in Russia but spend it here in the west. The Sergei Magnitsky law puts an end to that hypocrisy.