Study Of The Legal Issues Of International Energy Cooperation

The energy issue is a major issue concerning international economic security. In the context of global economic integration, nearly all countries tend to strengthen the energy cooperation, for the consideration of the interests of national security on one hand and the huge economic benefits of international trade on the other. A large number of countries have energy and strategic needs with China and lots of Chinese enterprises, especially those state-owned enterprises, are committed to the acquisition of foreign companies that can enhance their own influence in the world. These are many legal risks China has to face during the energy overseas investment. What's more? The conflicts and disputes among various countries in the overseas energy exploitation also provide an urgent need for a clear mechanism which governs this area.Before the main body of this article, there would be the introductory remarks. This contains the introduction to the background of this essay, the current status of research in this area, based on the comparative study of Chinese and foreign scholars'research. Then I'll talk about my research and analysis method, pointing out that the innovations of this article.Chapter I will be of international cooperation in energy and related legal issues. It will first define the energy content and introduce the basic status of international cooperation in energy and thus analyze related legal issues arising from the history and evolution.Chapter II will focus on the various global and regional energy cooperation in relevant international legal regime for the specific analysis, including global cooperation, regional cooperation, as well as the major energy exporting and energy importing countries, with a summary of existent legal problems.Chapter III will concentrate on the area of international trade and investment cooperation in the energy law. Today's energy cooperation in trade and investment is under the multilateral legal framework of WTO. This chapter has an analysis of WTO legal system concerning energy and trade, and further interprets the relevant provisions and the settlement mechanism of WTO.Chapter IV will analyze the present problems and the trends of international energy cooperation. On the one hand, China should strengthen the connection with the international energy organizations such as IEA and OPEC; on the other hand, china should make efforts to the establishment of the legal system of energy cooperation in the APEC, ASEAN, and Shanghai Cooperation Organization SCO. In a word, China should try to put forward the international energy cooperation from district to international level.The final part will make a summary of the essay: the international cooperation of energy, should be enhanced from bilateral to multilateral level, and finally to realize the establishment the mechanism like the WTO rules. During the process, China should persist in with her principles, to make sure the safety of energy supply and the maximization of national interests.