2 The Historical and Normative Background: ‘Freedom of Transit’ in International Law

Subject(s):

ECT (Energy Charter Treaty)

Chapter 2 examines the development of ‘freedom of transit’ in international law. It provides the historical and normative landscape for treaties on transit of energy via pipelines and offers a basis for academic comparison in the following chapters. The chapter begins with the analysis of the development of rules concerning transit through waterways (cross-border rivers, international canals, transit at sea), and continues by examining the development of rules concerning transit overland through the prism of the historical transition from the League of Nations to the United Nations and the debate about transit rights of landlocked states. It illustrates that in international law, the development of ‘freedom of transit’ via different routes came about separately, and served diverse purposes, for particular routes and for particular groups of states. However, in each case the balance between the interests of the transit state and those of other states underlies all rules concerning transit.