Cambridge International Trade and Economic Law: Series Number 35: Freedom of Transit and Access to Gas Pipeline Networks under WTO Law

Gas transit is network-dependent and it cannot be established without the existence of pipeline infrastructure in the territory of a transit state or the ability to access this infrastructure. Nevertheless, at an inter-regional level, there are no sufficient pipeline networks allowing gas to travel freely from a supplier to the most lucrative markets. The existing networks are often operated by either private or state-controlled vertically integrated monopolies who are often reluctant to release unused pipeline capacity to their potential competitors. These obstacles to gas transit can diminish the gains from trade for states endowed with natural gas resources, including developing landlocked countries, as well as undermine WTO Members' energy security and their attempts at sustainable development. This book explains how the WTO could play a more prominent role in the international regulation of gas transit and promote the development of an international gas market.

List of figures; Foreword; Preface, acknowledgements and disclaimer; Tables of cases; List of acronyms and abbreviations; Part I. The Topic and its Importance, the Scope and Structure of this Study, Overview of Relevant Theoretical Issues: 1. Setting the context; 2. The scope and structure of this study; 3. Overview of relevant theoretical issues; 4. Summary and concluding remarks; Part II. Freedom of Transit and Pipeline Gas: Overview of Relevant Legal, Political and Economic Aspects: 1. Introduction; 2. Freedom of transit and territorial sovereignty; 3. Freedom of transit and pipeline gas; 4. Summary and concluding remarks; Part III. General Overview of the International Regulation of Transit: 1. Introduction; 2. Transit and its historical contexts - general overview; 3. Freedom of transit in different areas of international law; 4. Is the principle of freedom of transit a principle of general international law?; 5. Summary and concluding remarks; Part IV. Pipeline Gas Transit under WTO Law: Assessment of Third-Party Access and Capacity Establishment Rights: 1. Introduction; 2. Applicability of WTO law to gas transit: GATT or GATS?; 3. Third-party access and capacity establishment under the GATT; 4. Third-party access and capacity establishment under the GATS; 5. WTO rules regulating conditions of transit, exceptions and institutional arrangements; 6. Summary and concluding remarks; Part V. Third-Party Access and Capacity Establishment Rights in Light of General Principles of International Law: 1. Introduction; 2. Relevant principle of general international law; 3. Practical questions arising in the context of effective freedom of gas transit; 4. Summary and concluding remarks; Part VI. Freedom of Gas Transit in the WTO: Dispute Settlement or Legislative Reform?: 1. Introduction; 2. Enforcing third-part access and capacity establishment rights in the WTO dispute settlement: a viable option?; 3. How can the regulation of third-party access and capacity establishment rights in the WTO be improved?; 4. Summary and concluding remarks; Part VII. General Summary and Conclusions: Appendix 1: selected legal materials; Appendix 2: regulation of transit in selected multilateral treaties; Appendix 3: examples of transit gar pipelines and flows, 2014; Bibliography; Index.