The Landsbanki Freezing Order was the first time that the UK government had used its powers to impose unilateral financial sanctions since those powers were revised in 2001. Such unilateral sanctions have never been common, but the previous version of these powers (section 2, Emergency Laws (Re-enactments and Repeals) Act 1964) had been used against Rhodesia after its Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965, and against Argentina during the Falklands war in 1982. The powers themselves date from the Defence (General) Regulations 1939.