This session examines how targeted sanctions, as legal tools intended to constrain wrongdoing, can be deployed either to advance accountability or to entrench impunity, depending on how they are designed and applied. Drawing on recent practice, from the US Executive Orders targeting law firms to the High-Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom's recommendations on sanctioning those responsible for attacks on journalists, the panel will examine the lawyer's role in shaping, scrutinising and safeguarding these instruments. It will also consider what due process safeguards are required to ensure sanctions serve justice rather than undermine it.