This open access book traces the journey of nuclear law: its origins, how it has developed, where it is now, and where it is headed. As a discipline, this highly specialized body of law makes it possible for us to benefit from the life-saving applications of nuclear science and technology, including diagnosing cancer as well as avoiding and mitigating the effects of climate change. This book seeks to give readers a glimpse into the future of nuclear law, science and technology. It intends to provoke thought and discussion about how we can maximize the benefits and minimize the risks inherent in nuclear science and technology. This compilation of essays presents a global view in discipline as well as in geography. The book is aimed at representatives of governments -- including regulators, policymakers and lawmakers -- as well representatives of international organizations and the legal and insurance sectors. It will be of interest to all those keen to better understand the role of law in enabling the safe, secure, and peaceful use of nuclear technology around the world. The contributions in this book are written by leading experts, including the IAEA's Director General, and discuss the four branches of nuclear law -- safety, security, safeguards and nuclear liability -- and the interaction of nuclear law with other fields of national and international law.

This handbook is a practical aid to legislative drafting that brings together, for the first time, model texts of provisions covering all aspects of nuclear law in a consolidated form. Organized along the same lines as the Handbook on Nuclear Law, published by the IAEA in 2003, and containing updated material on new legal developments, this publication represents an important companion resource for the development of new or revised nuclear legislation, as well as for instruction in the fundamentals of nuclear law. It will be particularly useful for those Member States embarking on new or expanding existing nuclear programmes.

Energy and Environmental Law and Policy Series #39 While the European Economic Community has evolved through the decades into the legal entity of the European Union, the substantive law contained in the 1957 Euratom Treaty has never been amended. Recurring legal discussions of the treaty’s potentially obsolete nature give rise to this much-needed handbook, which provides systematic analysis and evaluation of the competences conferred under the Euratom Treaty. Following the structure of the Euratom Treaty, the author analyses and evaluates the scope, content, exercise, and case law of the Euratom Communities’ competences in the following fields: Promotion of research, with reference to the Horizon research programmes; dissemination of information; health and safety, including environmental protection; investments; joint undertakings; nuclear supplies; safeguards; property ownership of fissile materials; the nuclear common market; and the Community’s external relations. The book deals with issues of stagnation and potential obsolescence through such lenses as the legislative amendment procedure, level of regulatory detail, quantitative elements of exercise, secondary legal acts, and the Court of Justice of the European Union’s power to define and delimit the Euratom Community’s competences. The competences in the fields of military activities and State aid are also examined in detail. The role of principles of subsidiarity and proportionality in European nuclear law and the issue of classification of competences under the Euratom Treaty are addressed in this book. With its systematic, chapter-by-chapter analysis of competences of the Euratom Community under the Euratom Treaty, the book will be welcomed by lawyers and negotiators working in nuclear field, researchers in nuclear law and in the broader competences of the EU, and policymakers in the European nuclear sector. “This book represents an important contribution to the renewed academic discourse on the Euratom Community. I would like to recommend it both to those looking for concise information on this neglected Community as well as to those dealing with the topic of competences with respect to the law of the EU. It is also vital reading for policymakers and lawyers active in the field of energy and nuclear law” Jakub Handrlica, Common Market Law Review (2021)

Nuclear Weapons under International Law is a comprehensive treatment of nuclear weapons under key international law regimes. It critically reviews international law governing nuclear weapons with regard to the inter-state use of force, international humanitarian law, human rights law, disarmament law, and environmental law, and discusses where relevant the International Court of Justice's 1996 Advisory Opinion. Unique in its approach, it draws upon contributions from expert legal scholars and international law practitioners who have worked with conventional and non-conventional arms control and disarmament issues. As a result, this book embraces academic consideration of legal questions within the context of broader political debates about the status of nuclear weapons under international law.

This book examines the law relating to the possession, threat or use of nuclear weapons. By addressing in logical sequence the law regarding sovereignty, the threat or use of force, the conduct of nuclear hostilities, neutrality, weapons law and war crimes, the book illustrates the topics that an effective national command, control and communications system for nuclear weapons must address. Guidance is given on intractable issues, such as the responsibilities of remote submarine commanders. The continuing relevance of the ICJ's Nuclear Advisory Opinion is assessed, and the prospects for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons are discussed. The book has been written in an accessible style so that it will be equally useful to lawyers and practitioners, including relevant commanders, politicians, policy staffs and academics. The objective is to state the law accurately and to explain its implications and provide practical guidance in this most sensitive area. This book is also available as open access.

This publication brings together the primary legally binding international instruments and the internationally accepted non-binding instruments that constitute the international legal framework for nuclear security. It sets out the legislative bases for the mandate of the International Atomic Energy Agency in the area of nuclear security, in order to increase awareness of the Agency's role in facilitating national, regional and international efforts to enhance nuclear security, including measures to protect against nuclear terrorism. It is intended that the overview of the salient provisions of the relevant binding and non-binding instruments will increase understanding of the existing legal framework governing nuclear security and counter-terrorism and thereby assist States, intergovernmental organizations and other stakeholders in the implementation of those provisions at the national, regional and international level.

A most comprehensive book, first published in 1999, analysing the ICJ Advisory Opinions on nuclear weapons handed down in 1996.

Making a timely contribution to the legal literature, this important book discusses an under-analysed issue of great importance to international peace and security. It provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of the prevention of nuclear terrorism specifically through an international (arms control) law lens.

The 1968 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty has proven the most complicated and controversial of all arms control treaties, both in principle and in practice. Statements of nuclear-weapon States from the Cold War to the present, led by the United States, show a disproportionate prioritization of the non-proliferation pillar of the Treaty, and an unwarranted underprioritization of the civilian energy development and disarmament pillars of the treaty. This book argues that the way in which nuclear-weapon States have interpreted the Treaty has laid the legal foundation for a number of policies related to trade in civilian nuclear energy technologies and nuclear weapons disarmament. These policies circumscribe the rights of non-nuclear-weapon States under Article IV of the Treaty by imposing conditions on the supply of civilian nuclear technologies. They also provide for the renewal and maintaintenance, and in some cases further development of the nuclear weapons arsenals of nuclear-weapon States. The book provides a legal analysis of this trend in treaty interpretation by nuclear-weapon States and the policies for which it has provided legal justification. It argues, through a close and systematic examination of the Treaty by reference to the rules of treaty interpretation found in the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, that this disproportionate prioritization of the non-proliferation pillar of the Treaty leads to erroneous legal interpretations in light of the original balance of principles underlying the Treaty, prejudicing the legitimate legal interests of non-nuclear-weapon States.