The Framework Of International Atomic Energy Law Study

There is no clear answer to the question of whether the International Atomic Energy Law (IAEL) can be studied as a branch of international law. From 1945 when nuclear power was firstly used for military purposes, merely 60 years have passed. Nevertheless, people start to concern about the safety use of nuclear power. At the same time, nuclear power has been seen as the hope of future energy supply. Despite of the calls for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapon, peaceful use of nuclear power for the benefits of the whole world society has been pushed forward prudently and unstoppably. The revolutionary impact brought by nuclear power on military power, international relation, science development and industrial application has reached to the level which is beyond what the application of any other technologies can achieve. New international rules must be established to face the new challenges of technology revolution and international situation development. The necessity of creating the new rules was placed on the top of the working agenda of the United Nation at the early stage of the establishment of the United Nation. The first action taken by the United Nation at that time was the establishment of the United Nation Atomic Energy Commission. The nuclear power related legislation started from 50s of the last century in the international communities. It has been continually reminding the world as to how to treat this attractive and dreadful new technology under the choice between war and peace, development and security. During the past 50 years, more than 50 nuclear power related multilateral international legal documents such as the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapon Treaty, the Comprehensive Ban of Nuclear Test Treaty and Convention on Nuclear Safety have been produced, and numerous bilateral agreements , nuclear safety standards and guidelines have been successively entered into. More and more rules regulating the development of nuclear power will be subsequently developed but new international issues are expected to continually emerge.Focusing on the name of the IAEL, this thesis is a tentative and frame-like study of the entire nuclear power use international legislation system from the perspective of a branch of international law. The thesis with a structure of the general summary and the detailed introduction, from substantive analysis to broad demonstration, systematically outlines the framework of the IAEL.The introduction section summarizes the purpose of this thesis, the theme, the status quo, the analysis and the structure of the study, and predicts that the study will contribute to the innovation and the reality of the legal theory.The general theory section composes of progressively connected four chapters. The Chapter 1 discusses the concept of the nuclear technology and the social impact of the nuclear power use related international relationship. The Chapter 1 also mentions the benefit and the disadvantage, the hope and the concern, and the gain and the risk involved in the nuclear power use with a conclusion that the nuclear power use related international relationship is a social relationship which has global strategic meaning. The Chapter 2 analyzes the concept of the IAEL by using the traditional international law study dimension and provides the definitions, the sources of law, the characteristics and principles, the legislation and implementation. It also compares the IAEL with other branches of international law. Given all the above attributions of the IAEL, the basis for IAEL to be studied as a branch of international law became a nature conclusion. The Chapter 3 analyzes the subject of the IAEL in reality. In addition to the right, liability and responsibility of a nation, the analysis is focused on the characteristic of international organizations and“person”as a subject. The Chapter 4 serves as a response to the topic of the thesis, outlining the tripartite method of framework of the IAEL which are the International Atomic Energy Organization Law(IAEOL), the International Non-Proliferation on Nuclear Weapon Law(INPNWL) and the International Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy Law(IPUNEL). It also briefly introduces the study object of IAEL.The Sub-Provision section includes three independent chapters, i.e. the Chapter 5, the Chapter 6 and the Chapter 7. The three chapters briefly introduce the content, the definition, the sub-category and the key international legislations on the nuclear power of the IAEOL, the INPNWL and the IPUNEL, which provides an objective and comprehensive picture of the IAEL by categories. The conclusion has been drawn that the establishment and development of the IAEL study is necessary.The two appendixes to this thesis are the IAEL Inventory and the IAEL Chronicle which visually demonstrate all the international legislation and the history in this field.