Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law (JERL)
About the Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law (JERL)
Published quarterly, the Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law (JERL) is the journal of the IBA’s Section on Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Law (SEERIL).
The Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law is the leading refereed journal in the field of energy and natural resources law offering global coverage of legal issues within these sectors. The Journal covers oil and gas law, mineral law (covering legal questions relating to minerals, including non-fuel minerals and the nuclear fuel cycle), coal law, water law and renewable energy law (which includes legal aspects of such matters as hydro and geothermal power, solar, tidal, wind and ocean energy, and timber and agricultural waste use).
JERL was launched in January 1983, under the editorship of Professor Terence Daintith, now a Professional Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London.
The Journal's current Editor is Kaisa Huhta, associate professor of European law at the University of Eastern Finland. She is assisted by Editor Emeritus, Don C Smith, University of Denver and the Journal Board and Editorial Advisory Committee, comprised of members of the Academic Advisory Group (AAG) of IBA SEERIL. Together, they bring to the journal an unsurpassed expertise in all areas of energy and natural resources law.
Featuring contributions written by some of the finest academic minds and most successful practitioners in this area of study, JERL is a highly respected journal committed to reflecting contemporary issues that face the energy and natural resources sectors.
The Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law (JERL) is in Clarivate's Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), which tracks the most influential journals in their respective fields. JERL received an impact factor of 3.5 in 2025 and ranks in the top 25 per cent of law journals.
Writing for JERL
The Editor welcomes the submission of articles that illuminate legal problems or issues currently faced by governments, companies and international organisations by setting them within their general legal, economic or political context. Of particular interest are articles that record the actual experience of lawyers resolving practical problems or developing legal devices or techniques, as well as those from academics contributing the fruits of their research into larger issues of law, economics or politics.
The Journal is published quarterly, with the cut-off for submissions being approximately 12 weeks ahead of an issue's cover date. The word limit for submissions is 10,000 words.
To submit an article, please read and follow the guidance below:
Latest issue - Vol 44 No 3 (August 2026)
Green hydrogen might be key to preventing global average temperatures from rising above 1.5°C from the pre-industrial level by mid-century as provided by the Paris Agreement. There is a global consensus that, if properly developed, green hydrogen and its derivatives will be a major factor to decarbonise many industries’ hard-to-abate by electrification, as well as for the storage and transport of clean energy.
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Renewed interest in nuclear energy due to energy transition and net-zero goals is being fuelled by advances in nuclear energy technologies such as small modular reactors (SMR). With expected increased investment interests in SMR, this paper questions whether the features of SMR commercial transactions would comply with the various principles and standards of international investment law. It found that there are mixed areas of compliance and non-compliance, and certain limitations and ambiguities. These findings will be relevant to SMR manufacturers and regulatory authorities for SMR global commercialisation. The paper concludes with certain recommendations including amending the International Energy Charter.
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The energy transition is driving unprecedented electricity demand as electrification increases, with many member states facing grid capacity shortages. National regulatory authorities (NRAs), supervising network operators, are exploring network tariff regimes to reduce peak electricity consumption. Time-of-use tariffs show promise in aligning with energy transition objectives such as energy efficiency, sustainability and energy justice. However, regulators remain strictly bound by economic efficiency. This article examines the extent to which these transitional objectives engage with, and potentially redefine, economic efficiency, and what this evolution means for the discretion available to NRAs in pursuing these transitional objectives within the boundaries of economic efficiency.
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The EU’s ambition to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, alongside its pursuit of strategic autonomy in critical raw materials such as lithium, often finds itself at odds with its own environmental regulations, binding on both member states and candidates. Serbia – a candidate for EU membership and a country possessing substantial lithium deposits – epitomises this inherent tension, enabling an analysis that extends beyond the confines of a single national jurisdiction. The paper contends that the feasibility of lithium extraction in the EU candidate countries entails the subordination of the Union’s legal standards to its overarching economic and strategic imperatives.
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In March 2025, President Trump suggested that US ownership of the Ukrainian nuclear power plants could be the best protection for them. In the aftermath, the suggestion for an ownership acquisition was specified only in relation to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. This comment aims to address this proposal from the viewpoint of liability for nuclear damages. The law of Ukraine channels liability for nuclear damages exclusively to the operator of the nuclear power plant. Consequently, any realisation of the suggested ownership transfer will also imply the transfer of liability for nuclear damages.
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Book review of The Kaleidoscope of International Law by Kazuhiro Nakatani, Singapore, Springer, 2024, XVII, 234 pp, 166,39 US$, ISBN 978-981-96-0061-8.
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Book review of the Handbook on Electricity Regulation Edited by Jean-Michel Glachant, Paul L. Joskow, and Michael G. Pollitt, UK, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2025, 558 pp, ISBN: 978 1 03531 434 8. The eBook version is priced at £20/$$26 from eBook vendors while in print the book can be ordered from the Edward Elgar Publishing website.
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Book review of Economics for a Sustainable World: An Introduction to Natural Resource and Environmental Economics by Edward B. Barbier and Joanne C. Burgess, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, June 2025, 553 pp, $234.51 (hardcover), ISBN: 978-1108833110.
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ISSN 0264-6811
How to order
Print subscriptions and online access to the Journal of Energy and Natural Resources Law are available to purchase from Taylor & Francis. IBA SEERIL members can access all content with their existing IBA username and password through the 'current issue' links above.
Review books
Please send information regarding books for review to the IBA editor at editor@int-bar.org.
Copyright and Disclaimer
The IBA holds copyright in all articles, newsletters and papers published by them. If you wish to reproduce or distribute any IBA publication or any part of an IBA publication, permission must be requested in writing from the Managing Editor at editor@int-bar.org, and due acknowledgment given.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in journals, newsletters and papers are those of the contributors, and not necessarily those of the International Bar Association.