APPLICATION TO TERRITORIES

Article 40 of the Energy Charter Treaty (along with Art 1(10)), determines the territorial scope of the Energy Charter Treaty. Specifically, Article 40 governs territorial declarations, namely declarations according to which Contracting Parties consent to apply the Energy Charter Treaty to certain (usually overseas) territories. In fact, the territorial coverage of the Energy Charter Treaty is important in at least two specific respects. First, it delimits those areas where the Energy Charter Treaty applies. Second, since the overseas territories of certain Energy Charter Treaty Contracting Parties constitute separate jurisdictions that also have separate corporate registries, it also helps determine the scope of covered investors. Moreover, Article 40, when read in conjunction with Article 45 (that governs provisional application), raises interesting questions, inasmuch as it is not entirely clear whether the Energy Charter Treaty continues to apply to Gibraltar, a territory to which it was provisionally applied, but which territory was not included in the United Kingdom’s instrument of ratification.