Part II Investor-State Arbitration in the Energy Sector, 9 ECT and European Union Law

Abstract

This chapter also looks at issues that typically arise in Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) cases. In particular, it explores those cases in which respondent states have made use of EU law in mounting a jurisdictional or substantive defence under the ECT. First, regarding EU law as a jurisdictional defence, the chapter looks both at intra-European BIT cases and intra-European ECT cases. Regarding the latter, the chapter addresses, among other things, the critical question of whether the ECT is applicable to disputes between an EU member state and a national of another EU member state, or whether such application is precluded by an implicit ‘disconnection clause’ under the ECT, as argued by the EU Commission. Second, regarding EU law as a substantive defence, the chapter analyzes scenarios in which EU law arguably requires conduct, on the part of a member state, that the ECT itself forbids, or vice versa.