Goals and content:

The course will provide the students with knowledge on the rules governing production of energy from non-fossil sources (hydro, wind, waves, solar, geo and nuclear) and transportation and marketing of energy. The course will have an international and comparative perspective with emphasis on the regulation in Scandinavia, EU, USA and Australia. The regulation of petroleum production will not be covered in this course.

Energy law is an important discipline as energy production and distribution is pivotal to the functioning of the society and economic and social development. All major countries have in the last decades reformed their energy legislation according to new policy. A development from public or semi-public producers and distributors of energy with legal monopolies to privatization and market-organisation has taken place in most countries the last decades.

The course will give insight in basic principles for resource management, the relation between public interest and business and modern market instruments. Energy law is also at the very centre of environmental law and the question of sustainable development. The World is facing a great challenge in producing enough energy in a manner that does not lead to global warming and climate change.

The course concentrates on alternatives to fossil fuel and on the systems for effective distribution and use of energy.

The course will concentrate on basic principles and regulation systems. Central themes are:

• Concession systems for energy production
• Safety regulation
• EU-directives for Natural gas market and Electricity market analysed and compared with parallel regulation other countries.
• The legal instruments for opening of the energy market for competition through access to transport systems and competition regulation
• The dominating legal models and for organisation of energy markets (oil, natural gas and electricity)
• Environmental aspects of energy production and distribution. Impact of climate regulation and establishment of a carbon market on energy marketing.

• The fundamental problems, concepts and principles of energy law
• Have good knowledge and understanding of the regulatory systems for electricity production, from renewable resources, such as concession regulation, access to energy resources, safety regulation and environmental regulation.
• Know the regulation of transport and market access for energy, such as third party access to transportation systems, unbundling, system operator's role.
• Know the organization and regulation of markets for oil, natural gas and electricity
• Understand the relation between energy regulation and the carbon market and climate regulation
• Identify and solve legal problems in energy production, distribution and marketing

Bachelor in law or equivalent (three years of legal studies)

Good level of English

Exam each semester.

Four hours school exam. A - E for passed, F for failed.

Exam language

Question paper: English

Answer paper: English

Type of examination

• semester with teaching: Written school exam (50 %), paper 50 %
• semester without teaching: Written school exam (50 %), paper 50 %

Support materials allowed during exam:

See section 3-5 of the Supplementary Regulations for Studies at the Faculty of Law at the University of Bergen.

In addition: Material collection sold through Studia

Special regulations about dictionaries:

• According to the Regulations for Studies, one dictionary is permitted support material during the examination. Bilingual dictionaries containing for example both Norwegian-English and English-Norwegian are considered as one dictionary.
• Bilingual dictionaries to/from the same two languages - for example Norwegian-English/English-Norwegian - in two different volumes are also considered as one dictionary (irrespective of publisher or edition).
• Dictionaries as described above cannot be combined with any other types of dictionaries.
• Any kind of combination which makes up more than two physical volumes is forbidden.

In case a student has a special need for any other combination than the above mentioned, such combination has to be clarified with/approved by the course coordinator minimum two weeks before the exam. Students who have not been granted permission to have a special combination minimum two weeks before the exam will be subject to the usual regulations (Section 3-5) about examination support materials.

Course teacher: Professor http://www.uib.no/persons/Ernst.NordtveitErnst Nordtveit

Administrative contact: elective-courses@jurfa.uib.no