Abstract: Modern international economic sanctions (unilateral restrictive measures) are a unique phenomenon and a vivid example demonstrating how the operation of the norms of private international law can affect the achievement of foreign policy goals. Being a public legal category in its essence, international economic sanctions have a significant impact on private law relations, including relations with a foreign element. Civil law and other relations complicated by a foreign element are subject to the influence of sanctions adopted by the competent authorities of foreign states: contractual, corporate relations, as well as relations within the framework of arbitration, enforcement of foreign court decisions and others. In this regard, private (civil) international law functions as a filter that translates economic sanctions of public law origin into the sphere of private law. Its main task is to choose the applicable law, and conflict of laws rules decide whether a specific international economic sanction applies to contractual relations between the parties or not. The author applies both philosophical and general scientific methods of cognition (analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, critical and dialectical methods) and methods specific directly to legal science (structural-logical, formal-legal, comparative-legal).The scientific novelty of the research lies in the comprehensive study of international economic sanctions in the context of private and public law. It is precisely private international law that can help to smooth out differences in national judicial practice in cases related to international economic sanctions. The article deals mainly with EU sanctions in the context of private international law, and also provides recommendations for improving and unifying EU sanctions regulation in the context of civil international law. The European sanctions regulation, being one of the most ancient, has a significant amount of judicial practice in the field of application and recognition of sanctions of a foreign state. The study of international sanctions in the context of private law relations can play a significant role in the development of the doctrine of private international law and law enforcement practice.