INTEL - The coming of age of a new legal discipline: Developing the general doctrine of energy law

INTEL makes a ground-breaking contribution to energy law scholarship by developing the general doctrine of energy law in a European context. A general doctrine refers to a discipline’s key concepts, principles and theories.

While all well-established legal disciplines have an understanding of their doctrine, energy law does not. A general doctrine consolidates the foundations of a discipline and guides legislators, courts and lawyers in identifying, valuing and interpreting legal norms. In light of the energy transition and the energy crisis in Europe, it is imperative to solidify and cohere the foundations of energy law.

The INTEL project will develop the general doctrine of energy law through a novel methodological combination. The project will combine jurisprudence, interviews, co-creation and machine learning to generate new knowledge on the interpretation of sources of energy law, and on how legislators, judges and lawyers perceive energy law.

The project constructs and analyses the concepts, principles and theories that emerge from the evolution of EU energy law, from EU legal sources and from the way in which legal professionals perceive doctrine. The project will advance the field of energy law by bringing coherence and predictability to the legal system governing energy and strengthen methodological diversity in legal research by creating a novel technique for constructing a general doctrine.