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Energy Law Principles

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Energy Law: An Introduction

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Law ((BRIEFSLAW))

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Abstract

This chapter explores a set of core principles that guide energy law. In advancing a guiding set of principles it set outs a new path for the study and practice of energy law. The aim therefore is to change what constitutes energy law and challenge the assumptions of existing researchers and practitioners as globally society moves towards a transition to low-carbon economies.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For example, energy practices can range from 10 to 50% of a firm’s revenues in many cases.

  2. 2.

    There are a number of early texts and papers in this regard, see for example: (1) Roggenkamp, M.M., Redgwell, C., Rønne, A. and del Guayo, I. (Eds.), 2001 (1st ed) p. 7, and 2016 (3rd ed) p. 8 and on the concept of EU Energy Law, p. 188. Energy Law in Europe. Oxford University Press: Oxford, United Kingdom; (2) Heffron and Talus (2016a), pp. 1–10; (3) Heffron and Talus (2016b), pp. 189–202; (4) Wawryk (2014), pp. 223–255.

  3. 3.

    For example, model contracts have been developed by many organizations, in particular Association for International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN), the International Bar Association, and the OECD.

  4. 4.

    For example, the polluter-pays-principle is a great example of this.

  5. 5.

    For a discussion of the outcome of liability and in relation to the Deepwater Horizon incident, see: Heffron et al. (2016), pp. 1–10.

  6. 6.

    For example, UNGA Resolution 1803 (XVII) (1962) proclaimed ‘[t]he right of peoples and nations to permanent sovereignty over their natural wealth and resources’. For an interpretation, see Texaco Overseas Petroleum Company and California Asiatic Oil Company v. The Government of the Libyan Arab Republic awards. (The award on the merit, 19 January 1977) available in 53 ILR (1979) 389, Clunet (1977) 350. For the preliminary award of 27 November 1975, see 53 ILR (1979) 389.

  7. 7.

    Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment 1972, and Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development 1992, principle 21.

  8. 8.

    The Biodiversity Convention 1992, Art. 2 includes an explicit definition of “sustainable use” as “ use … in a way and at a rate that does not lead to long-term decline of biological diversity. Other examples are the Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses 1997, Art. 5 uses “optimal and sustainable utilization”. Convention on Co-operation for the Protection and Sustainable Use of the River Danube 1994 includes the term in the title and in the text but at the same time refers to “conservation”, rational use and sustainable management, preamble, Art. 2, 5, 6. Likewise the UN Fish Stocks Agreement 1995, employs both “sustainable use”, “conservation”, and “long-term sustainability”; the International Tropical Timber Agreement 1992 Art. 1(e) and (l), “sustainable utilization” but also “management” and “conservation” and the Convention to Combat Desertification and Draught 1994 refers to “sustainable use”, “sustainable management”, “conservation” and “efficient use”, cf. Art. 2, 3, 10(4), 11, 17, 19. See conservation and sustainable management in The World Charter for Nature 1982, Principle 3; UNCLOS 1982, preamble & Art. 61 (living resources) and UNFCCC 1992, Art. 4 d).

  9. 9.

    1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development adopted 14 June 1992. See also International Law Association, ILA New Delhi Declaration of Principles of International Law Relating to Sustainable Development, 2 April 2002, which as its first principle lists that “States are under a duty to manage natural resources, including natural resources within their own territory or jurisdiction, in a rational, sustainable and safe way.., and to the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources..”. Moreover, “States must take into account the needs of future generations in determining the rate of use of natural resources” and have a ”duty to avoid wasteful use of natural resources..”.

  10. 10.

    Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment adopted in Stockholm, 16 June 1972.

  11. 11.

    Resolution A/70/1, Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted on 21 October 2015.

  12. 12.

    Resolution A/55/2, United Nations Millennium Declaration, adopted on 18 September 2000.

  13. 13.

    And indeed this is what the scholar William Bainbridge was doing in his text (which followed the word by Brown and William Bainbridge (1878).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Dundee, Dundee, UK

    Raphael J. Heffron

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Heffron, R.J. (2021). Energy Law Principles. In: Energy Law: An Introduction. SpringerBriefs in Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77521-6_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77521-6_5

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