In the much-vaunted “rules-based” world, some have noticed that many rules are never written down, and more than a few get cobbled together as needed. Now, European Council President Charles Michel has undertaken to develop, according to “fairness” and “justice,” what to do with assets, once they’ve been seized. He explained in a May 5 interview with Interfax-Ukraine, published in Kyiv Post that the EU countries should confiscate Russian assets seized under unilaterally declared “sanctioning,” and give them to Ukraine for their trouble. “Personally, I’m absolutely convinced that this is extremely important not only to freeze assets but also to make it possible to confiscate. In my opinion, this is a question of fairness to make this money available ... especially for the rebuilding of the country. It’s a question of fairness, a question of justice.” However, it is not clear where fairness and justice were to be found, e.g., after a few decades of destroying Afghanistan.
Regardless, Michel said that he called upon the European Council’s legal service to work out “some ideas in order to find a legal solution in line with the principles of rule of law that would facilitate and make possible the confiscation of the assets of the people who are sanctioned by the EU or by other countries in the world.” So, Michel apparently acknowledges that there is no present “rule of law” that allows such actions, but if one ascertains the underlying principles of such rules of law, then something could be sketched out along those lines. Evidently, the key principles in a rules-based world is that the rules are made by those who rule. (https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/donor-conference-on-may-5-should-become-a-starting-point-of-the-marshall-plan-for-ukraine.html)