The voluminous energy transition legal framework in France and the question of its recognition as a branch of law

From 2012 to 2017, the legal production related to the energy transition was massive in France. Although the Energy Transition for Green Growth Act of 2015 is the flagship legislation of this period on this eponymous topic, many other acts directly or indirectly concerning the energy transition were adopted and carried provisions contributing to its legal corpus. Additionally, this legal production was accompanied by an extensive process of public participation, an unusual practice in French energy law and policy building. The emergence of a voluminous legal corpus concerning the organisation of a transition from fossil and fissile fuels to renewable energy sources in France has led the author to ask the following question: To what extent may the voluminous energy transition legal framework recently created in France result in the emergence of a new autonomous branch of law? To answer this question, this article presents various sets of criteria for the recognition of an autonomous branch of law and uses the cases of the emergence of energy law and of the interrelations between environmental law and climate change law to analyse the potential qualification of the energy transition legal framework. •A voluminous and specific energy transition body of law has recently emerged in France.•This new legal framework has redesigned French energy policy targets.•It is difficult to regard it as an autonomous branch of law.•It could be considered a subdiscipline of energy and environmental law.•This recognition would open the way for new research on energy transition law.