The Impact of the Principles of International Environmental Law on Nuclear Law

The thesis presents an investigation of the direct and indirect impact of environmental legal principles on international nuclear law and the regulation of nuclear activities, seeking to offer an up-to-date material for decision-making institutions and society on the main challenges that are necessary to overcome in order to reach the situation where nuclear energy could in the most effective way contribute to the implementation of environmental aims and where the environment could be adequately protected against any risks of the possible transboundary damage caused by nuclear activities developed for peaceful purposes (the analysis carried out in the thesis adopts an ecocentric rather than anthropocentric approach). The environmental legal principles chosen as an object for the analysis are those that provide for the guidelines and directions for the development of the international norms of nuclear law as well as lay down the regime for protecting natural environment (environmental safeguards) and international liability for environmental damage caused as a result of nuclear activities (i.e., the principles of cooperation, sustainable development, prevention, precaution, polluter pays, and the principle of information). After defining the points of interaction between international environmental law and nuclear law, the analysis proceeds with the examination of problems related to the evolution of environmental legal principles and their perspectives in the area of the regulation of nuclear activities, provides the discussion about the relevant practice of national and international dispute resolution institutions in relation to nuclear facilities, answers the question as to which of the models of the operation of the examined environmental legal principles—direct or indirect—has proved to be more effective in implementing the sought objectives of environmental protection, and demonstrates the reciprocal relationship of the two branches of law as well as the tendency for nuclear law to develop towards ecocentricity