This piece begins by illustrating the current status of United Nations targeted sanctions regimes, from the formal point of view. It then proceeds to explain the mechanisms of listing and de-listing at the UN level, as well as the means by which UN Member States, and the European Union, implement these sanctions in their national (regional) legal orders, and why the chosen means of implementation create potential situations where the states (the EU) might find themselves in breach of differing international obligations. In the final part, the article shows how the major international European courts (the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights) have dealt with this potential conflict, and posits that their approaches are very different and will have different consequences: i.e. whereas the CJEU has taken a militant approach, which threatens to damage the unity of international law, the ECtHR has taken an unitary approach, which strengthens the international system, while also promoting human rights over sanctions.