The common thread running through this issue of IELR is gas market access and liberalisation. At one level, this is a famously complex and recondite technical subject, often best left to pundits steeped in economic, sectoral and regulatory expertise. At another, however, it can involve much broader questions which impinge on us all, and about which many have trenchant views. The articles in this edition bear this out. They touch on some precise questions of legal and economic analysis and policy-making. Yet, at the same time, they point towards much wider cross-border themes, which in some ways have even taken centre stage in today's political battles. For example, they highlight the tension between domestic control and autonomy, on the one hand, and international investment flows and freedom of trade and movement (sometimes called globalisation), on the other, which underlies political debate in many countries today, sometimes taking them to the brink of crisis.
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