EU Law and the ECT as Distinct and Separate Legal Regimes: A Case Comment on Eskosol v Italy, Decision on Request for Immediate Termination and Jurisdictional Objection Based on the Inapplicability of the ECT to Intra-EU Disputes, 7 May 2019

This case comment examines the decision of the tribunal in Eskosol v Italy rejecting the respondent’s jurisdictional objections based on the inapplicability of the Energy Charter Treaty to intra-EU disputes. In particular, it examines the tribunal's construction of a division between EU law and the ECT, emphasizing the separate and distinct characters of the two regimes, with the twin ambitions of making intra-EU arbitration under the ECT less objectionable from an EU law perspective while maintaining the autonomy of ECT arbitral tribunals. Whether the tribunal's first objective is feasible, however, is doubted and the extent to which intra-EU arbitration under the ECT has a future questioned.