The reinforcement of the sanctions policy of the leading world powers and their coalitions has highlighted the problem of doctrinal research inadequacy of the practice of international legal regulation of the use of international coercive measures. This study aims to determine the dominant approaches to the correlation between the categories “sanction” and “law” regarding municipal and international law, based on historical and comparative analysis of the positions of Russian and foreign legal doctrines. Despite fundamental differences in the systems of national and international law, both cases sanctions act as a coercive measure to observe the statutes of law, both regarding the implementation of international responsibility and non-responsibility relations. In addition, the study provides specific examples of unilateral coercive measures (sanctions) of regional international organizations that are inconsistent with the imperatives of general international law. In conclusion, the state of international legal regulation of the use of coercive measures is substandard; however, the primary reasons for this provision remain unclear. Furthermore, this study formulates a proposal for the development of a doctrinal model of criteria for the lawfulness of international coercive measures.