Composite Decision-Making and Accountability Networks: Some Deductions from a Saga

Summary:

This article sets out to explore the impact of multi-level decision-making on accountability machinery through a case study of asset-freezing decisions taken in response to UN resolutions ordering ‘smart sanctions’ against persons and bodies suspected of involvement in terrorism.

This article adopts a different standpoint. Using asset-freezing as a paradigm of multi-level or composite decision-making, it explores the effectiveness of traditional accountability machinery in dealing with this phenomenon, concluding that cooperative ‘accountability networks’ or networks of entities specializing in accountability such as courts, parliaments, and ombudsmen, should be developed to fill the serious accountability gaps that have emerged.