Resilience in Energy, Infrastructure, and Natural Resources Law: Examining Legal Pathways for Sustainability in Times of Disruption

The number of severe and sometimes catastrophic disruptive events has been rapidly increasing. Extreme weather events including floods, wildfires, hurricanes, and other natural disasters have become both more frequent and more severe, whilst events such as the COVID-19 pandemic represent a global threat to public health with huge economic effects that recovery packages tried to address. These disruptive events, alone and in combination, have dramatic consequences on nature, human life, and the economy, calling for urgent action to mitigate their causes and adapt to their impacts.

In response to discourses of collapsology and end-of-growth theories, this monograph offers an analytical approach to developing legal responses that can help ensure the needs of present and future generations can be met through energy systems, infrastructure development, and natural resources management in these times of disruption. 'Resilience' is, therefore, seen as a common framework for the interpretation and development of energy, infrastructure, and natural resources law.

With a mix of thematic chapters and case studies from multiple jurisdictions, Resilience in Energy, Infrastructure, and Natural Resources Law maps and assesses legal responses to disruptive nature-based events, and examines possible legal pathways for more sustainable outcomes, based on its engagement with this concept of 'resilience' and social-ecological thinking.

Catherine Banet is an Associate Professor at the University of Oslo, Faculty of Law, Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law, Energy and Resources Law Department, Norway. She is specialised in energy law, environmental law, state aids law, and EU/EEA law and has a background in private law practice (Norway, France), the European Commission (DG ENV), US diplomatic mission, and academia. Professor Banet is chair of the board of the Norwegian Energy Law Association; a permanent member of the Academic Advisory Group of the International Bar Association, Section on Energy, Environment, Resource and Infrastructure Law; an Academic Fellow at the Center on Regulation in Europe (CERRE); and an academic co-director of the LL.M programme North Sea Energy Law Partnership (NSELP).

Hanri Mostert's expertise fields are land and mineral law and property law. She has been a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Public and International Law in Heidelberg, Germany, and later at the University of Freiburg in Breisgau, as a Humboldt fellow. She wrote a monograph on Mineral Law that was cited with approval by the Supreme Court of Appeal and relied on by the South African Constitutional Court. As a visiting professor at the University of Groningen, she became a co-founder of the Rethinking Expropriation Expert Group. In her current role as SARChI Research Chair for Mineral Law in Africa, she is creating a book series dealing with the mineral laws of Africa, and building a network of African mineral law specialists. She is also a steering committee member of the IBA's Academic Advisory Group for the Section on Energy, Environment, Resource, and Infrastructure Law.

LeRoy Paddock is a Distinguished Professorial Lecturer in Environmental Law at The George Washington University Law School. He served for 12 years as Associate Dean for the Environmental Law Studies at The George Washington University Law School. LeRoy previously was Director of Environmental Law Programs at Pace University's Haub School of Law. He is the author of numerous book chapters and articles in a wide range of areas including energy, environmental governance, environmental enforcement, and natural resources protection. Prior to his academic career, he has authored five book chapters for AAG books. LeRoy served for 20 years as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Minnesota where he was Director of Environmental Policy for the Attorney General for 13 years and Manager of the Office's Agriculture and Natural Resources Division.

Milton Fernando Montoya has undertaken postdoctoral studies at the University of Dundee (UK), Ph.D. at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), Master in Energy Law at the Instituto Superior de la Energía (Spain), after graduating at the Universidad Externado de Colombia. He is Research Director at the Institute of Mining and Energy Law at Universidad Externado de Colombia and Honorary Lecturer at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law, and Policy, University of Dundee. Professor Montoya is a Member of the Academic Advisory Group, Section on Energy, Environment, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure Law (SEERIL) of the International Bar Association (IBA) and a Member of the board at the Colombian Mining and Petroleum Bar Association. He is founding partner at Estudio Jurídico Montoya & Asociados.

Iñigo del Guayo is Professor in Administrative Law at the University of Almería. LLM and Ph.D. (University of Navarre). He has researched and published widely in the area of Energy Law, within a broader interest in Public Economic Law and Regulation. He is the editor and a co-author of the three editions of the book Energy Law in Europe: National, European Union and International Law and Regulation (Oxford University Press, 2001, 2007 and 2016) and Chair of the Academic Advisory Group (AAG) of the Section on Energy, Environment, Resources, and Infrastructure Law (SEERIL) of the International Bar Association (IBA). Professor del Guayo is also Director of the Master on Energy Law, of the Spanish Energy Club; vice-president of the Spanish Energy Law Association (AEDEN); and a member of the scientific committee of the European Federation of Energy Law Associations (EFELA).