Tilburg Law and Economics Center

PhD defense by Eckart Ehlers

Thesis Title

Electricity and gas supply network unbundling in Germany, Great Brittain and the Netherlands and the law of the European Union: a comparison


Supervisors Summary

Eckart's PhD thesis analyzes the legality of energy supply network divestiture as threatened by the European Commission and the legislative unbundling measures which entered into force in summer 2009, in each case on the basis of European economic regulation competences.

EC competition law and the question as to whether the European Union is allowed to exercise its competence to legislate for further unbundling measures are one focus of the discussion, which relies extensively on economic evidence and reasoning. Another focus of this work is the question of whether these measures are in breach of economic fundamental rights as recognized by the European Union.

This work also deals with the extent to which the implementation of these legislative unbundling measures (in particular ownership unbundling and independent system operation) complies with the constitutional frameworks of Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands. In all the jurisdictions discussed, the distinction is made between private and public undertakings where relevant.

The last part of this work then draws comparative conclusions and lessons.

Book

Eckart's thesis will be published by Intersentia in the Energy and Law series, and will be available soon.

Table of Contents (PDF)

ISBN 978-90-5095-957-5

Project

Part of Eckart's thesis was done in the framework of TILEC's cooperation with Essent N.V., and the Unecom project.

Contact

See also

 

Date

23 November 2009
Start at 16.00

 

Location

Auditorium
Tilburg University

Directions

 

 

Book