Research in CEPMLP

We promote a distinctive research orientated culture with our academic staff and senior graduate students

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CEPMLP research is focussed on the role played by law, economics and international politics on the various energy and natural resources industries, with a particular emphasis on the impacts of transitions on governance, markets, sustainability and justice.

Broad areas for research are international economic law, energy economics, energy diplomacy, climate governance, and critical mineral value chains. Within these areas, two complex sets of issues are the evolving relationships between the state as custodian of the public interest and the participation of foreign investors, involving specific issues such as how to strengthen the rule of law, how to ensure an equitable distribution of outcomes, how to settle disputes amicably and how community participation in decision-making can be achieved.

The second set of issues arises from the ongoing energy transformation to a low carbon economy. This involves an expanding range of issues to do with the sustainability of energy systems, what a just transition means for countries with very diverse energy economies, especially those with low- and middle-incomes; the appropriate regulation of sources of energy that acquire particular importance in this process, and the managed decline of certain mature technologies.

The perspective is global, examining research issues at international, regional, national and local levels; comparative, in recognition that 'one size does not fit all' in a world of more than 190 nation-states; and often applied, using case studies and similar methods to test the theory with practice. In a field where public policy is pervasive and growing, our research critically examines and contrasts policy intentions with observed outcomes, considering questions of efficacy, probity, and market dynamics.

We believe in reinvention and adaptation, like the city of Dundee. We are the oldest dedicated Energy Law centre in the UK, founded in 1977, and have become an internationally oriented and inter-disciplinary research centre. We have refreshed our perspectives and methods several times in our long history. We are vigorously doing it today. As researchers, we strive for excellence and original high-impact insights and constantly seek to advance the frontier of knowledge by challenging self-limiting groupthink, unverified orthodoxies and assumptions, and self-serving narratives sometimes promoted by various industry participants and governments. These goals matter more than ever at a time of energy transition.

Reports

Report

The CEPMLP Annual Review (CAR) is an Academic Peer Review Publication that reviews the work of students at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP) who have attained an A grade in their research papers and/or dissertation while perusing a master’s degree in either law, management, sustainability, or economics at CEPMLP.