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Editorial: From the CEPMLP Director

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
DOI10.3366/gels.2020.0002
Pagesv-viii
Date01 February 2020
Published date01 February 2020

The launch of this Journal is a positive development and one which I am delighted to be associated with. It gives pause for thought about the meaning of the five words in the Journal's title, words that are ambitious in their scope and, like the Journal itself, exciting in what they promise.

Every good story has a hero and a villain. In global energy law the narrative is one of collective characters: on the one hand, a group of largely academic heroes work to design and propose principles that characterise and guide the energy law project, with good global governance in mind, as well as justice, fairness and access to energy for all; on the other hand, a large, but less cohesive group act to keep any principles to a minimum and at a very abstract level, and to limit or fragment any attempt to develop multilateral or supra-national solutions.

If this characterisation appears unnecessarily dramatic, it is worth noting the scale and importance of the energy sector. The volume of energy investment worldwide has been estimated at over US$1.8 trillion annually, accounting for 2.2 percent of global gross domestic product and ten percent of global gross capital formation.1 The strategic significance of energy for the economies of nation-states is well-known, and in contrast to most other economic sectors, the role of the state is pervasive and lasting. It is present not only in attracting and protecting investment – frequently from international sources – but also in the post-investment phase, as participant, regulator, and as monitor or overseer. Moreover, the state role may be concentrated disproportionately on a single investment since in many countries it may have an overwhelmingly importance for the national economy at least in the view of the government. Examples could include the Hinkley Point financial arrangements in the UK to underwrite a new nuclear investment, or a hydrocarbons field or mine or a developing country.

Given the cross-border character of so much energy activity, it would seem logical for states to develop instruments of multilateral governance. Much of the growing investment in renewable energy is international in character, as is investment in pipelines, grids and other forms of energy-related infrastructure. Price volatility can be dramatic with international effects but so can the challenges of tax collection from internationally operating corporations, as has recently been underlined by the IT sector. Environmental challenges arising...

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