ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the ways in which energy security is conceptualised from a legal perspective and considers the extent to which these might either restrict or facilitate innovation in the face of these dynamic and interconnected challenges. It asks whether new orientations of law are required and, if so, what these might look like. Emerging from the recognition of opportunities for unprecedented international collaboration in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War, the Energy Charter Treaty is the most ambitious international legal instrument in the realm of energy security insofar as it attempts to establish market conditions across much of Eurasia in relation to investment, transport and trade, especially in oil and gas. The chapter considers some suggestions to refocus international efforts to change the behaviours of states in the domain of energy security where that concept is complexified by the appreciation of climate change, and looks at alternatives which focus on changing the behaviours of economic actors.
