Sunset Clauses in International Law and their Consequences for EU Law
PE 703.592
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the treaty’s role in providing a legal framework promoting long-term cooperation, suggesting that the
treaty is conceived as enhancing the stability required for such cooperation.’
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In
practice, the ECT in order to achieve long-lasting cooperation, like ordinary investment treaties,
includes a five-year initial validity period,
during which Signatory Parties cannot unilaterally terminate
the treaty.
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In addition, the exit from the treaty is subject to two sectional sunset clauses marking the
complexity of the procedure. Pertaining to Parties to the ECT, a sectional sunset clause in Article 47,
paragraph 2, in reality, extends the validity of the treaty for one year after the date of the receipt of the
notification of the withdrawal.
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Once
the one-year period passes, the treaty automatically expires for
the Contracting Parties and it does not extend protection for new investments.
Then, a second sectional sunset clause, in paragraph 3 of the same article,
is referred only to
investments already made, and extends the validity of the provisions of the ECT to such investments
for 20 years from the date the withdrawal takes effect.
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According to the
Travaux Préparatoires
of the
ECT, the initial draft did not include the 20-year sunset clause. The sunset clause was a suggestion by
the United States and the EU (European Communities, at that time), which was supported by other
delegations, and first recorded in the Basic Agreement 4.
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Thus, according to the combination of both sunset clauses, the Parties to the treaty that unilaterally
withdraw from the ECT shall comply with the provisions of the ECT for investments already made, for
21 years (
in toto
) from the date they notified their intention to withdraw. For instance,
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