But there are few meaningful sanctions that could be imposed under international law, and legal principles are vague enough to provide justification for the bombing as a humanitarian act.

The European Union, for example, has no meaningful sanctions of its own against the responsible Sudanese leaders.

"Auditors who fail to perform those legal duties risk meaningful sanctions."

The Labour government will work in the United Nations for a strengthened nuclear non-proliferation treaty, backed by meaningful sanctions and by a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty.

Without the support of Arab countries, it would be hard to sustain any meaningful economic sanctions or to pose a credible military deterrent.

Washington and the United Nations have only recently gotten serious about enforcing meaningful economic sanctions.

"If we're going to have a meaningful sanction, it will have to be more than a token amount," said the counsel to the state Office of Court Administration, Michael Colodner.

It doesn't make sense, not as long as there are other meaningful sanctions.

In other words, is it possible for breaches of undertakings made voluntarily by a given country to result in some tangible and meaningful sanctions?