Energy Security of Transit States in the Framework of International Law

Research on energy security acknowledges the rise in geostrategic significance of transit states in an increasingly interconnected and globalized international system, especially in the global energy trade. Nevertheless, the dynamics of transit states vis-à-vis producer and consumer states remain undertheorized and underexplained. While the literature has highlighted the necessary criterion of a sufficient level of political goodwill to bring about the economic benefits of cooperation in the energy market, the effect of transit states on bilateral and multilateral relations in terms of regional stability is underexplored. This paper will employ an interdisciplinary perspective that synthesizes two separate analytical approaches. It introduces a theoretical approach on energy security derived from a critical, social constructivist tradition in international relations that analyses state relations in their various roles in this set of relationships (producer, transit, and consumer state) in a regional context and with an emphasis on the securitizing and desecuritizing processes and outcomes among them. At the same time, the paper places these relations in the analytical framework of international legal provisions that set the context for their interaction. The paper analyses the rights, obligations, and protection thereof, of coastal states as transit states under international and European Union law as applied to a case study of the proposed Eastern Mediterranean pipeline and a comparison to the Nord Stream pipeline system.