Like informal sanctions, formal sanctions may be positive or negative.

It has no formal sanction or authority behind it other than the general consensus of opinion within the community".

And yet those same acts today escape formal sanction.

Although it seemed unlikely that there would be any formal sanction against the magazine, the message was clear: watch your step.

In 1955, this arrangement was given formal sanction by approval of the District Conference.

However, only authority of position has the backing of formal sanctions.

Government control depends on bargaining, rather than on formal sanctions that are generally ineffective.

This obligation can and should be enforced by appropriate formal sanctions.

The request had no force of law, although a threat of formal sanctions lurked in the background.

Control of the beat officer through formal organizational sanctions had both negative and positive attributes.