The Energy Charter Treaty and International Environmental Law: Systemic Integration as a Tool for Treaty Reconciliation

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15220%2F25%3A73632964" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15220/25:73632964 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

The Energy Charter Treaty and International Environmental Law: Systemic Integration as a Tool for Treaty Reconciliation

Original language description

The fragmentation of international law has given rise to normative tensions between international investment law and international environmental obligations, particularly in the context of climate change. The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), a multilateral investment treaty designed to promote and protect energy investments, has come under intense scrutiny for its perceived incompatibility with states’ environmental commitments, including those under the Paris Agreement. This contribution explores the interpretive space within the ECT to accommodate environmental obligations, focusing on systemic integration under Article 31(3)(c) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) as a doctrinal and normative tool to reconcile competing treaty regimes.Systemic integration requires that treaty provisions be interpreted in light of “any relevant rules of international law applicable in the relations between the parties”. This contribution argues that this principle offers a legally grounded mechanism for integrating environmental norms, both treaty-based and customary, into the interpretation of investment protections under the ECT, such as fair and equitable treatment and indirect expropriation. The conclusion is drawn on arbitral jurisprudence where tribunals have either engaged with or failed to consider systemic integration in contexts involving environmental regulation, including cases such as RWE v. Netherlands, Rockhopper v. Italy, and Greentech v. Italy.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

C - Chapter in a specialist book

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50501 - Law

Project

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Continuities

V - Vyzkumna aktivita podporovana z jinych verejnych zdroju

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Book/collection name

Contemporary Issues of International Environmental Law

ISBN

978-80-7160-769-4

Number of pages of the result

35

Pages from-to

315-350

Number of pages of the book

488

Publisher name

Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, Právnická fakulta

Place of publication

Bratislava

UT code for WoS chapter

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