ACADEMIC ACTIVITES
Peter Cameron, LL.B (Joint Hons. Law & Politics) (Edinburgh University, 1974); Ph.D. (Edinburgh University, 1981), has a professional career spanning more than 25 years, specialising in public international and European law with respect to energy, and specifically oil & gas exploration and production, and gas & electricity legislative reform and regulatory issues.
From 1986 to 1997
He was the Director of the International Institute for Energy Law at the University of Leiden , the Netherlands . As such, he was largely responsible for two tasks: firstly, attracting prestigious international consultancy projects on law reform and, secondly, to encourage innovative research in the field of energy law.
During this time the achievements of the Institute were listed in a series of annual reports. Apart from attracting several major projects on law reform in Central and Eastern Europe, he obtained sponsorship from a London law firm for a junior research fellowship for the period of 1991-1995. Under his supervision this led to the production of several articles and a book entitled "Electricity Utility Regulation in the European Union" (E.D.Cross, Wiley, 1995). In addition, he obtained corporate support from Shell Legal Department in The Hague (1997) for a study on emerging oil and gas laws in Central Asia , and several small grants from the International Bar Association during 1989-91 for research assistance on energy law projects, leading to the publication of edited collections of articles on utilities law. Finally, he played a major role in persuading twelve European energy companies and law firms to take subscriptions to the Documentation Centre. As a result, the Library became independently funded and all purchases are met from the subscription income. The companies included Ruhrgas, Shell, Preussen Elektra and Centrica (as replacement for British Gas).
During this period the Institute promoted an international energy law programme and built up a strong record in teaching through the EC Erasmus Programme. Its co-operation included the Universities of Berlin, Bochum , Bologna , Copenhagen , Dundee, Göttingen, Granada , Madrid , Oslo , and Oxford . Under his supervision, members of staff carried out comparative research which mapped out the contours of the various national regimes for gas, electricity and oil in Europe. Three publications on national regimes that emerged as a result were: Electricity Utility Regulation in Europe, by E.D. Cross; Gas Regulation in Europe, by Peter Cameron and Oil & Gas: Netherlands Law and Practice, by M.M. Roggenkamp . He examined many features of the nuclear energy scene in his book "Nuclear Energy After Chernobyl". This research was continued by Dr. N. Horbach under his supervision. In 1996 her work on nuclear energy law and the Energy Charter Treaty won the Journal of Energy and Natural Resources Law Willoughby Prize.
From 1997 to date
As the Professor of International Energy Law at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum, and Mineral Law and Policy (Centre), University of Dundee , UK , he has both teaching and research obligations. He is responsible for teaching two courses in the autumn semester: the Centre's core course in petroleum law - International and Comparative Petroleum Law and Policy - and the specialist class in EC Energy, Natural Resource and Environmental Law and Policy. He is supervisor of both PhD and LLM students, and a member of the Centre's management strategy group.
Since 2002 he has also been the Research Director of the Centre, which involves essentially a co-ordination of individual efforts towards the UK Research Assessment Exercise, monitoring and mentoring of academic staff, and the encouragement of research activities within the Centre. He is the architect of the Theme concept around which research done by Centre academics has been clustered and may be consulted on the research part of the website.
For five years, from 1998 to 2002 inclusive, he co-ordinated (jointly with the Centre for European Policy Studies) the Centre annual seminar in EC Energy Law and Policy held in Brussels, and in 2001 and 2002 was the co-ordinator of the Centre seminar on mining law and policy.
From 2002 to date
He is also part-time professor at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute (EUI) in Florence , Italy . He is director of the Annual EU Energy Law Workshop and has organised and chaired the workshop from 2002 to 2004. He obtained sponsorships for these workshops entirely from a group of well-known international law firms. Due to the workshops' considerable success, six law firms have made a three-year sponsorship commitment from 2005 to 2007.
