Investor vs. State Disputes Under ECT & Turkey's Track-Record

The world's constantly growing energy demand and energy investments, requiring substantial capital and long-term commitments, which can be easily affected by political, legal and environmental changes, inevitably give rise to disputes between investors and the host states of investments. This is almost exactly why the Energy Charter Treaty (the "ECT")¹ was signed in the 1990s. The ECT has an important role in international law. Its purpose is to establish an international legal framework, with a view to promote long-term cooperation in the energy field, on the basis of complementarity and mutual benefits, in accordance with the objectives and principles of the European Energy Charter. To date, 51 states, including Turkey,² have signed the ECT and 47 of them³ have ratified it. With this large number of ratifying states under its umbrella, the ECT has the widest geographical scope in the field of energy investments.