This pioneering and in-depth study into the regulation of shale gas extraction examines how changes in the constitutional set-ups of EU Member States over the last 25 years have substantially altered the legal leverage of environmental protection and energy security as state objectives. In this timely book, Ruven Fleming argues that the practical consequence of these changes has been the self-inflicted curtailment of legislative discretion. The first to formally assess the legality of fracking bans and moratoria, he exposes their flawed construction, revealing that the current regulations could be successfully challenged in front of courts of EU Member States. Reaching beyond shale gas, innovative chapters further propose a new methodology - the so called triad of objectives, principles and rules - to develop legally sound regulation of new energy technologies in the context of the energy transition. Students and scholars across environmental and energy law will find this book an essential contribution to the sparse literature regarding the legal aspects of fracking and shale gas in Europe. The focus on a new legal methodology will also provide guidance to decision-makers and regulators alike.

The European Energy Law Reports are an initiative taken by the organisers of the European Energy Law Seminar which has been organised on an annual basis since 1989 at Noordwijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. The aim of this seminar is to present an overview of the most important legal developments in the field of International, EU and national energy and climate law. Whereas the first seminars concentrated on the developments at EC level, which were the results of the establishment of an Internal Energy Market, the focus has now gradually switched to the developments at the national level following the implementation of the EU Directives with regard to the internal electricity and gas markets. This approach can also be found in these reports.This volume includes chapters on ''Newcomers in the Electricity Market: Aggregators and Storage'', ''Hydropower Concessions in the EU: A Need for Liberalisation or Privatisation?'', ''Investments and des-Investments in the Energy Sector'', ''Offshore Decommissioning in the North Sea'', ''CCS as a Climate Tool: North Sea Practice'' and ''From EU Climate Goals to National Climate Laws''