Treaties on transit of energy via pipelines and
countermeasures
Oxford UP 2015
This monograph examines the relationship between
treaties providing for uninterrupted energy transit and countermeasures under
the law of international responsibility. It analyses the obligations governing
energy transit through pipelines in multilateral and bilateral treaties,
looking at the WTO Agreement, the Energy Charter Treaty, and sixteen bespoke
pipeline treaties.
It argues that
a number of transit obligations under these treaties are indivisible,
reflecting the collective interests of states parties. The analysis is placed
in the historical and normative landscape of freedom of transit in
international law. After setting out the content and scope of obligations
concerning transit of energy, it distinguishes countermeasures from treaty law
responses, and examines the dispute settlement and compliance supervision
provisions in these treaties. Building on these findings, the work discusses
the availability and lawfulness of countermeasures as, on the one hand, a means
of implementing the transit states responsibility for interruptions of energy
transit via pipelines; and, on the other hand, circumstances that preclude the
wrongfulness of the transit states interruptions of transit.
