What connects the teaching of climate change law, international energy law and nuclear law? The answer is little, judging by a preliminary survey of master’s degree programmes offered by university law schools. Many of these LLM degree courses now teach individual modules on aspects of climate change law, including climate justice issues (sometimes within broader international environmental law-oriented subjects), as well as (international) energy law, usually from an investment law perspective. However, few of these academic law teaching fields/subjects actively consider the place of nuclear energy – and hence nuclear law – within their scope. Yet many countries, particularly western economies, are embracing nuclear power as part of a solution to move beyond fossil fuels to non/low-carbon energy alternatives. 

David Ong

David Ong

This is gaining traction in the face of mounting evidence of a climate change crisis, increasing energy security concerns because of the Ukraine conflict and continuing Middle-East tension. While much attention has been devoted to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, nuclear power retains its place as a low/non-carbon energy source that is not subject to weather-induced intermittency issues.

This resurgence of interest in nuclear power as an important (if not imperative) element of low/non-carbon energy is understandable. It is needed to meet both national and corporate net-zero/carbon neutrality targets, renewing professional interest in the legal and institutional frameworks for financing, building, operating and decommissioning civilian nuclear facilities. These include new generation, large-scale nuclear power installations, small modular reactors and even floating nuclear power plants.

All these developments have implications for general law practice, particularly energy (investment) law, project finance law, planning law and environmental law. This is in addition to the specialised contractual, tortious liability and administrative/regulatory instruments devoted to the nuclear industry.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s first ever International Nuclear Law conference in April highlighted the return to prominence of civilian nuclear power-generation and its attendant legal frameworks.

Arguably there is a dearth of teaching in nuclear law per se at the tertiary level of legal education. Practising lawyers can learn and update their knowledge of these specialised areas of law through their CPD training, notably via courses such as the International School of Nuclear Law, jointly run by the OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency and Montpellier University.

Yet this is not replicated in the academic law teaching provision for the financing, regulatory approval, planning, building, operating, decommissioning and waste-disposal aspects of civilian nuclear energy facilities. Given the comparatively short undergraduate law degree courses at universities in England and Wales, the legal connections between climate change, energy and hence nuclear law are best addressed within the traditional post-graduate LLM degree programmes run by university law schools. However, a perusal of LLM courses within major universities reveals that most barely cover nuclear law. No doubt this is at least partly due to university marketing teams not picking up the latent but growing professional interest in nuclear law, both in its own right and as an important field in relation to other legal practice areas. But it is also arguably indicative of a relative lack of expertise within academic ranks at university law schools.

So how should nuclear law be introduced within LLM degree programmes so students gain at least a flavour of the rich potentiality for professional work in nuclear law and its associated fields?

Within the recently revamped and retitled International Energy Law (IEL) LLM degree course at Nottingham Trent University, we have included several dedicated weekly seminars on nuclear law within a broader, 10-week/one-term module on ‘International Energy Transition Law and Regulation’. These seminars introduce the policy debate around the inclusion of nuclear power within the range of sustainable energy sources in the wider transition to reliance on fully renewable energy sources.

They then cover the main international and national (England and Wales) legal and institutional frameworks that underpin the nuclear power generation industry, based on the well-known principles of safety, security and safeguards, as well as environmental sustainability. A ‘cradle-to-grave’ approach is adopted with attendant legal frameworks being mapped on to all stages of nuclear energy provision, from initial financial investment decision-making, through planning, construction, installation, operation and decommissioning of nuclear plants.

A new element within this continuum relates to how far nuclear power can now be seen as a sustainable investment vehicle as envisaged by the EU’s taxonomy legislation (for sustainable investment/financial products) and UK national nuclear energy policy. Prospects for fusion-based nuclear reactors are also canvassed within this context. The (comparative) domestic aspects extend to an examination of the regulatory framework for planning and permitting of all manner of energy-related projects within England and Wales, as well as a dedicated seminar on prospects for African nuclear power generation, with a focus on Nigeria.

Returning to the wider issue of the lack of tertiary-level academic law teaching provision on nuclear law, it is to be hoped that financial support (possibly from the legal profession itself) for PhD-level scholarships in all aspects of nuclear law (and its associated fields) will help to redress the current dearth of nuclear law specialists within academia. Our relationship with nuclear power is at an inflexion point due to the climate change crisis and consequent energy transition imperative.

 

David Ong is professor of international and environmental law at Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University