The European Union (EU) faces a pressing, multi-level energy crisis propelled by the perfect storm of Russia’s war in Ukraine and rapidly progressing climate change. As a result, the EU is... Show moreThe European Union (EU) faces a pressing, multi-level energy crisis propelled by the perfect storm of Russia’s war in Ukraine and rapidly progressing climate change. As a result, the EU is scrambling to ensure it has sufficient energy supplies for the foreseeable future while reinventing its energy strategy in the long term. Since the EU is at a critical juncture for squaring EU energy security with European and international legal commitments, this article surveys this radical shift and its consequences. It analyses new EU-wide crisis-response tools and ad hoc bilateral arrangements with third countries against existing legal commitments. Recent developments are only the beginning of a much larger re-evaluation of core notions of the ‘trade-energy security’ nexus. To decarbonize, the EU must move towards a ‘security-centred’ energy transition, premised on ‘security first, compliance second’. This requires reassessing the notion of ‘protectionism’ in geopolitically sensitive areas and the current division of energy competences between the EU and its Member States. Show less
The question of human rights and energy has been traditionally framed as an analysis of limitations on energy transactions arising from substantive and procedural human rights. Whereas the negative... Show moreThe question of human rights and energy has been traditionally framed as an analysis of limitations on energy transactions arising from substantive and procedural human rights. Whereas the negative externality framing of human rights sets safeguards against the adverse effects of energy transactions and thereby restrains how such transactions are conducted, it overlooks a more fundamental dimension, the conferral of entitlements. Indeed, human rights define entitlements over energy resources, setting competing claims that limit not only how energy transactions are conducted but also the very power to conduct them in the first place. The entitlement dimension of human rights also unveils a wider question, namely the competing claims of a variety of collective subjects against the entitlement of the territorial or coastal States. In other words, such reframing opposes two logics of international law, each based on a different conception of the source from which entitlements flow. This article investigates the externality-avoidance and entitlement function of human rights in the context of international energy transactions. It reviews the most relevant judicial and quasi-judicial practice at the international level to illustrate the implications of framing the function of human rights from one or the other perspective. Show less
Corporate taxation and particularly corporate tax incentives that jurisdictions introduce in special economic zones have not, until recently, been subject to extensive international regulation.... Show moreCorporate taxation and particularly corporate tax incentives that jurisdictions introduce in special economic zones have not, until recently, been subject to extensive international regulation. Only in the last decade has a regime of soft law standards and European Union measures with extraterritorial effect been constructed. This article explains how the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Action Plan developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Union Code of Conduct for Business Taxation interact with corporate tax incentives in special economic zones. Empirical evidence from Latin American and Caribbean jurisdictions shows that this emerging international regime began having an impact on special economic zone laws beyond the OECD and European Union Member States. An analysis of ongoing negotiations on the further developments of the international tax regime permits the cautious conclusion that the regulation of SEZs may in the future be affected in a more fundamental manner by international norms. Thereby, the article shows that special economic zones’ unilateralism in corporate taxation may be slowly receding in contrast to other areas of international economic governance. Show less
