Nuclear Energy Regulation, Risk and the Environment by Abdullah Al Faruque Published by Routledge, 2019, 194 pp., £120.00, hardback.

• Published date: 01 April 2020
• Date: 01 April 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12323
• Author: Jakub Handrlica

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DOI: 10 .1111/reel .12323

NUCLEAR ENERGY REGUL ATION, RISK AND THE

ENVIRONMENT BY Abdullah Al Faruque

Published by Routledge, 2019, 194 pp., £120.00, hardback.

A comprehensive framework of multilateral agreements has been

concluded by Stat es under the auspices of the Inter national Atomic

Energy Age ncy (IAEA) to address var ious issues relating to the use s

of nuclear energy: non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, early noti-

fication and mutual assistance, nuclear liability, nuclear security, nu-

clear safety a nd radioactive waste m anagement. This special b ranch

of public internat ional law is referred to as intern ational nuclear law

in legal scholarship. What are the relations between international

nuclear law and env ironmental law? The C hernobyl (1986) and

Fukushima (2011) nuclear d isasters clearly s howed the magnitude of

environmenta l harm that can be caused by an acci dent in a nuclear

installatio n. Yet international nuclear l aws do not always address en-

vironmental issues, and several international environmental agree-

ments expres sly exclude their applic ation to nuclear issues.1

Whether international nuclear law and environmental law inter-

act in a synerg istic way repres ents the main re search quest ion of

Abdullah Al Faru que’s book on Nuclea r Energy Regulat ion, Risk and

the Environment. This question was disc ussed as early as the 1980s

in a pioneering m onograph written by Vanda La mm.2 Lamm argued

that both interna tional nuclear l aw and environmen tal law are au-

tonomous bran ches of law, which emerged as a resu lt of distinct so-

cio-economic co ncerns in the second half of the t wentieth century.

Subsequentl y, the relatio ns between the two branche s of law were

addressed several times in legal scholarship.3

Despite this grow ing literature, A l Faruque’s book repre sents a key

contribution by of fering the firs t comprehensive ana lysis of this issue.

While most of the e xisting literature on the topic h as dealt with the

question from the viewpoint of internationa l nuclear law, Al Faruqueʼs

attention cent res on internatio nal environment al law and how the

latter regulate s nuclear ener gy and the risk s it presents. W hile the

existing liter ature has focused mainl y on specific issues , the reviewed

book offers a co mprehensive analysis of all areas gove rned recently

by the international agreements in the area of nuclear energy. After

providing an intr oduction on th e current contex t of nuclear energ y

(Chapter 1) and on the r elationship betwe en international nucl ear law

and environmen tal law (Chapter 2), Al Faruque t urns to an analysis of

the environmen tal aspects of the cu rrent regime on nuclear n on-pro-

liferation (Chapter 3), radioactive waste management (Chapter 4),

safety and sec urity of nucle ar installatio ns (Chapter 5), decom mis-

sioning (Chapter 6), nu clear liability (Chapte r 7) and early notificat ion

and mutual assis tance (Chapter 8). In the followin g chapters, the au-

thor also deals w ith the institutional fram ework of internatio nal nu-

clear law (Chapter 9), le gislative trends in sele cted countries (Chapte r

10) and responses to t he Fukushima accident (Chapte r 11). The book

ends with conclu ding remarks o n the interact ion between inte rna-

tional nuclea r and environment al law (Chapter 12). A s evidenced in

this brief desc riptive overview, Al Faruque’s boo k offers a very com-

plex overview of various fields, where international nuclear law and

environmenta l law meet. From this perspecti ve, his book is a timely

contribution to t he discussion on t he principles of e nergy law and

their relation to o ther fields of law.4 In th e following, I will a ddress

specific chap ters of the reviewed book.

Nuclear Energ y Regulation, Risk a nd the Environment s tarts wit h

an introductory chapter that addresses the relationship between in-

ternational nu clear law and enviro nmental law by focu sing on two

specific issu es. First, the author as ks to what extent nuclear ene rgy

is covered by specific international environmental agreements.

Second, he exp lores the exte nt to which princip les of internation al

environmenta l law are reflecte d in the schemes of i nternational

nuclear law.5 Upon examining thes e issues, the aut hor concludes

that ‘internatio nal treaties on nu clear energ y have increasingl y in-

tegrated many envi ronmental pri nciples within t he use of nuclear

energy’ (at 3 4). This is absolute ly correct, t aking the develo pments

of the post-Cherno byl period into con sideration. Fo r example, the

Protocol of 1997 to Amend the V ienna Convention on Civil Li ability

for Nuclear Dama ge, which was adopt ed to address the ch allenges

arising from the Chernobyl accident, included environmental dam-

ages under the sc heme of the oper ator’s liability. We can id entify

the same developments under the Protocol of 2004 to Amend the

Convention on Thi rd Party Lia bility in the Fie ld of Nuclear Ener gy.

However, Al Faruque also cor rectly points out that ‘ the relationship

between envir onmental law and nuclear en ergy law is still evolving’

(at 34). His conclusio ns concur with the findings of oth er scholars.6

Indeed, one c an entirely agre e with his obser vation that inter na-

tional nuclea r law and environmental law cont inue to represent two

rather indep endent areas of public inter national law. The concept of

exclusive liabilit y of the operator, as provide d by the existing nuclea r

1 See, e.g., th e Basel Convent ion on the Contro l of Transboundar y Movements of

Hazardous Wa stes and their Di sposal (Ar ticle 1(3)), the Con vention on the

Transboundar y Effects of I ndustrial Ac cidents (Ar ticle 2(2)) and th e Internation al

Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage in Connection with the Carriage

of Hazardous a nd Noxious Subs tances by Sea ( Article 4(3)) .

2 V Lamm, The Utilization of Nuclear Energy and International Law (Akadémiai Kiad ó 1984).

3 See, e.g., P Rey ners, ‘Le dro it nucléaire con fronté au droit de l ʼenvironneme nt –

autonomie ou c omplementa rité’ (2007) 10 Rev ue québécoise d e droit internat ional 149;

S Emmerecht s, ‘Environme ntal Protect ion under Nucle ar Law: Still a Lo ng Way to Go’ in

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), International Nuclear

Law: Histor y, Evolution and Outl ook (OECD 2010) 121.

4 See, e.g., R J Heffron et al , ‘A Treatise for Energy L aw’ (2018) 11 Journ al of World Energy

Law and Busin ess 34; J Handrl ica, ‘Nuclea r Law Revisited as a n Academic Dis cipline’

(2019) 12 Journal of Wo rld Energy La w and Business 52.

5 The author fo cuses on the pre vention princi ple, the pollu ter-pays principl e, the

precautionary principle, the cooperation principle, the intergenerational justice principle,

the prior notification principle and the environmental impact assessment principle.

6 See, e.g., Rey ners (n 3) 149.