International Energy Law: an Emerging Academic Discipline

I IntroductionAdrian Bradbrook has been a leading international academic in the field of energy law for many years, in particular in the fields of renewable energy and energy conservation. Not only did he write pioneering legal works in this area, but he instituted the key law course on Mining and Energy Law at the University of Adelaide at a time when most other Australian universities did not teach energy or resources law as a mainstream legal subject.In 1996, Bradbrook wrote a seminal paper on teaching Energy Law as an academic discipline. While ‘Energy Law’ as conceived of in his paper largely focused on Australian national and state issues, he identified the fact that energy law is increasingly acquiring an international law dimension as one of the most significant developments of the time. This ‘international law dimension’ of energy law includes both the increasing internationalisation and standardisation of national laws, where, for example, ‘traditionally national subjects such as taxation laws now have an international dimension’, and the growth and influence of public international law in the context of energy, an area which, he argued, had ‘evolved and continues to evolve very rapidly and … represents the real cutting edge of energy law at the present time’.The increasing recognition of the ‘international law dimension’ of energy law among legal scholars, legal practitioners and those working in any role with energy markets has led to the growing recognition and development of ‘international energy law’ as a separate academic discipline.