European Society of International Law (ESIL) Interest Group on European and International Rule of Law Webinar Series – Energy and Environmental Governance in Transition: Oil and Gas Law, Environmental Justice, Sustainability, and the Rule of Law
Wednesday, January 27, 2027
Time: 10:00–11:30 a.m. U.S. Central Time | 11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time | 5:00–6:30 p.m. Central European Time
Format: Online – Microsoft Teams
Participation: Free and open to all. Registration required.
Registration: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfANAjOy8uGhjnLEZkUdHsptPHxhVTDjaOrNvz0SGqlw_pWvw/viewform?usp=header
More information, including the detailed event description, speakers’ biographies, and a selected bibliography, will become available and updated here
Event Description
The European Society of International Law (ESIL) Interest Group on European and International Rule of Law is pleased to announce the sixth webinar in its ongoing series, conceived, organized, chaired, and moderated by Professor Paolo Davide Farah.
Energy and Environmental Governance in Transition: Oil and Gas Law, Environmental Justice, Sustainability, and the Rule of Law will bring together scholars working across environmental law, energy law, oil and gas law, natural resources governance, environmental justice, and sustainability to examine the legal and institutional challenges of governing energy systems in a period of profound economic, technological, regulatory, and environmental transformation.
The contemporary energy landscape presents a series of interconnected legal challenges. Conventional oil and gas development remains central to many economies, even as governments, businesses, and communities pursue renewable energy, decarbonization, and new forms of energy infrastructure. At the same time, environmental degradation, climate change, public health concerns, and unequal distributions of environmental burdens continue to raise fundamental questions about regulatory legitimacy, institutional accountability, and the role of law in shaping sustainable development.
These transformations cannot be understood exclusively through the lens of technological innovation or energy policy. They also require engagement with property rights, contractual arrangements, administrative law, constitutional law, environmental regulation, corporate governance, public participation, distributive justice, and the institutional allocation of authority among different levels of government.
The webinar will place three recent environmental and energy law publications into dialogue, exploring their complementary contributions to understanding how law governs natural resources, regulates environmentally consequential activities, responds to historical and contemporary inequalities, and mediates conflicts among economic development, environmental protection, and social justice.
The objective is not simply to present three books or to treat environmental law, environmental justice, and oil and gas law as separate areas of legal specialization. Instead, the discussion will examine their intersections and consider how these fields collectively illuminate the legal foundations, institutional limitations, and future possibilities of sustainable and equitable energy governance.
Featured Books and Publications
Robin Kundis Craig and Uma Outka
Craig and Outka’s Environmental Law in Context: Cases and Materials, Sixth Edition (West Academic, 2027; scheduled for publication in December 2026).
This casebook examines the principal institutions, doctrines, statutes, and regulatory frameworks of U.S. environmental law while emphasizing the broader legal, scientific, economic, and institutional contexts in which environmental regulation operates.
The sixth edition addresses developments involving environmental statutes, administrative law, environmental justice, climate change, scientific uncertainty, regulatory decision-making, and the evolving relationship between courts, administrative agencies, and other institutions.
Its contextual approach provides a foundation for discussing environmental law not merely as a collection of regulatory requirements but as a system of legal governance shaped by competing institutional responsibilities, scientific knowledge, economic interests, and societal priorities.
The book will serve as a point of departure for examining how environmental law responds to regulatory change and how its institutions interact with energy development, environmental justice, and sustainability.
Clifford Villa and Co-authors
Clifford Villa, Nadia B. Ahmad, Rebecca Bratspies, Patrice Simms, Carlton Waterhouse, Clifford Rechtschaffen, Eileen Gauna, Catherine O’Neill, and Roger Lin, Environmental Justice: Law, Policy & Regulation, Fourth Edition (Carolina Academic Press, 2026).
This publication examines environmental justice through the interaction of environmental law, civil rights, public policy, community engagement, and institutional accountability.
The fourth edition addresses contemporary environmental justice challenges involving environmental pollution, cumulative impacts, climate change, public health, disaster vulnerability, and the unequal distribution of environmental risks across communities.
It also explores the legal and institutional mechanisms available to affected populations, including the role of administrative agencies, public participation, civil rights frameworks, state and local initiatives, and broader developments in environmental justice governance.
The book provides a foundation for considering how environmental and energy governance can move beyond formal regulatory compliance to address substantive inequalities, historical patterns of environmental harm, and questions concerning who benefits from energy development and who bears its costs.
Joseph A. Schremmer
Advanced Introduction to US Oil & Gas Law (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2026).
This book provides an examination of the legal foundations and contemporary operation of U.S. oil and gas law.
It addresses mineral ownership, property rights, oil and gas leasing, contractual relationships, resource development, and the distinctive legal doctrines and regulatory arrangements governing hydrocarbon extraction.
The publication also considers the evolving position of oil and gas law in a changing energy landscape, including the relationship between traditional resource development and broader debates about energy transitions.
The book offers an important perspective on the legal institutions and economic arrangements that continue to structure conventional energy development and the extent to which these frameworks can accommodate emerging environmental, technological, and sustainability challenges.
Featured Authors and Speakers
Robin Kundis Craig
University of Kansas School of Law, United States
Uma Outka
University of Kansas School of Law, United States
Clifford Villa
University of New Mexico School of Law, United States
Joseph A. Schremmer
University of Oklahoma College of Law, United States
Discussants
Gerald Torres
Yale Law School and Yale School of the Environment, United States
Seema Kakade
University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, United States
Victor B. Flatt
Case Western Reserve University School of Law, United States
Chair, Moderator, and Discussant
Paolo Davide Farah
University of Tulsa College of Law, United States
Chair, ESIL Interest Group on European and International Rule of Law
Key Questions and Themes
1. Environmental Law in Context: Institutions, Regulation, and Legal Change
How should environmental law respond to the changing relationship between courts, administrative agencies, legislatures, regulated industries, and affected communities?
What are the implications of changes in administrative law, judicial review, scientific uncertainty, and institutional authority for environmental protection and regulatory accountability?
How can environmental law maintain coherence and legitimacy in periods of rapid political and regulatory transformation?
2. Oil and Gas Law in an Era of Energy Transition
What role should conventional oil and gas law play in contemporary energy systems?
How do existing property rights, mineral ownership arrangements, leasing structures, contractual obligations, and regulatory institutions shape decisions about energy development?
To what extent can established oil and gas frameworks accommodate new environmental priorities, technological developments, decarbonization objectives, and changing energy markets?
3. Environmental Justice and the Distribution of Energy-Related Benefits and Burdens
Who bears the environmental, social, economic, and public health consequences of energy production and infrastructure development?
How should legal institutions address historical environmental inequalities, cumulative impacts, and the disproportionate burdens experienced by Indigenous communities, low-income communities, and other populations exposed to environmental risks?
What legal mechanisms can strengthen meaningful participation, institutional accountability, and access to remedies?
4. Energy Governance Across Multiple Levels
How should regulatory authority be distributed among federal, state, tribal, local, and international institutions?
What challenges arise when energy development, environmental protection, economic regulation, and climate policies are governed through overlapping or fragmented legal frameworks?
How can institutions coordinate more effectively while respecting different legal traditions, constitutional structures, jurisdictional responsibilities, and community interests?
5. Sustainability, Corporate Governance, and the Rule of Law
What role should businesses, investors, regulators, and courts play in ensuring that energy development is environmentally responsible and socially accountable?
How should environmental law interact with corporate governance, environmental liability, financial responsibility, and sustainability commitments?
What institutional safeguards are needed to ensure that energy transitions advance environmental protection and social justice rather than reproduce existing patterns of inequality?
6. Environmental and Energy Law Scholarship and Legal Education
How should environmental law, environmental justice, and oil and gas law be taught and studied in a period of profound regulatory and technological change?
What can different pedagogical and scholarly approaches contribute to understanding the relationship between legal doctrine, scientific evidence, institutional design, community participation, and public policy?
How can legal education prepare students and practitioners to address the increasingly interconnected challenges of environmental governance and energy development?
Bringing Environmental Law, Environmental Justice, and Oil and Gas Law into Dialogue
One of the principal objectives of the webinar is to explore the connections among fields that are often treated separately in legal scholarship and education.
Environmental law provides the regulatory and institutional frameworks through which environmental harms are addressed and natural resources are protected.
Environmental justice examines the distributional consequences of those frameworks, the experiences of affected communities, and the relationship between environmental decision-making, equality, and institutional power.
Oil and gas law provides a complementary perspective on the property, contractual, economic, and regulatory arrangements governing a major component of contemporary energy systems.
Bringing these perspectives together offers an opportunity to examine the broader governance challenges posed by energy transitions.
The conversation will consider not only how environmental and energy law are changing, but also how they should evolve to address competing societal priorities, economic development, climate change, environmental inequalities, and the rule of law.
Although the featured publications primarily engage with U.S. legal frameworks, the webinar will also encourage comparative and international reflection on questions of environmental governance, energy regulation, institutional legitimacy, and sustainable development.
Event Format and Participation
The webinar will feature contributions from the authors of the three publications, comments from invited discussants, and a moderated exchange addressing their common themes and broader implications.
The format will emphasize interaction among participants rather than a sequence of separate book presentations.
An audience discussion will provide additional opportunities to explore connections among the publications and the wider legal, policy, and institutional challenges they raise.
Date: Wednesday, January 27, 2027
Time: 10:00–11:30 a.m. U.S. Central Time / 11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time / 5:00–6:30 p.m. Central European Time
Platform: Microsoft Teams
Registration: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfANAjOy8uGhjnLEZkUdHsptPHxhVTDjaOrNvz0SGqlw_pWvw/viewform?usp=header
More information, including the detailed event description, speakers’ biographies, and a selected bibliography, will become available and updated here
Participation is free and open to academics, researchers, legal practitioners, policymakers, students, and other interested participants.
Registered participants will receive the information necessary to join the webinar.
The event will be recorded for subsequent public dissemination.
About the ESIL Rule of Law Webinar Series
The European Society of International Law Interest Group on European and International Rule of Law Webinar Series is conceived, organized, chaired, and moderated by Professor Paolo Davide Farah.
The series encompasses public and private law, international and comparative law, legal theory, commercial and business law, international economic law, environmental and climate change law, energy and natural resources law, oil and gas law, Indigenous rights, technology and artificial intelligence governance, and related fields.
It also engages with economics, political science, international relations, public administration, public policy, history, sociology, and development studies.
Its objective is to foster substantive interdisciplinary conversations connecting recent scholarly publications with contemporary legal, economic, environmental, technological, and institutional challenges.
Professor Paolo Davide Farah, PhD
University of Tulsa College of Law
3120 East Fourth Place
Tulsa, OK 74104
https://paolofarah.com/
https://paolofarah.wordpress.com/
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=629289
II. PREVIOUS ESIL WEBINARS AND SCHOLARLY EVENTS
Since July 2026, the ESIL Interest Group on European and International Rule of Law has organized three webinars bringing recent scholarly publications into dialogue with contemporary international legal and governance challenges.
These conversations are designed not simply as book presentations, but as opportunities for substantive exchanges between authors, discussants, and participants working across different disciplines and jurisdictions.
Recordings of all three webinars are now publicly available.
WEBINAR 1 – JULY 22, 2026
ESIL Interest Group on European and International Rule of Law Webinar Series – Inaugural Webinar – Taxation, Racial Capitalism, and the International Rule of Law: From Colonial Slavery to Global Governance
Speakers
- Anthony C. Infanti – University of Pittsburgh School of Law
- Steven A. Dean – Boston University School of Law
Discussant
- Carliss N. Chatman – SMU Dedman School of Law
Chair, Moderator, and Discussant
- Paolo Davide Farah – University of Tulsa College of Law
Featured Books
Anthony C. Infanti
The Human Toll: Taxation and Slavery in Colonial America (New York University Press, 2025).
Steven A. Dean
Racial Capitalism and International Tax Law: The Story of Global Jim Crow (Oxford University Press, 2025).
The webinar examined the historical and contemporary relationships between taxation, racial capitalism, colonial slavery, international economic governance, and the rule of law.
It explored how fiscal and legal institutions have contributed to the production and reproduction of inequalities, from colonial America to the contemporary international tax system.
Further Information, Event Description, and Bibliography: https://paolofarah.wordpress.com/2026/06/17/this-esil-interest-group-on-international-and-european-rule-of-law-conversations/
Watch the Full Webinar Recording:
WEBINAR 2 – AUGUST 12, 2026
ESIL Interest Group on European and International Rule of Law Webinar Series – Webinar 2 – From Trademark Law to Public Health Governance: Intellectual Property, International Treaties, and the Rule of Law in a Changing Global Order
Speakers
- Shujie Feng – Tsinghua University School of Law, China
- Srividhya Ragavan – Texas A&M University School of Law, United States
Discussant
- Edward Kwakwa – World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva, Switzerland
Chair, Moderator, and Discussant
- Paolo Davide Farah – University of Tulsa College of Law
Featured Books
Shujie Feng
Chinese Trademark Law from the Perspective of International Treaties (Springer Nature, 2026).
Le Droit Chinois des Marques au Regard des Traités Internationaux (Éditions A. Pedone, 2024).
Srividhya Ragavan and Swaraj Paul Barooah
Fractures in IP, Trade, and Health: Centering a Public Health Framework (Oxford University Press, 2025).
The webinar explored the relationship between intellectual property rights, international treaty obligations, public health governance, international trade, and the rule of law.
The conversation placed Chinese trademark law and its evolution through international treaty implementation in dialogue with contemporary debates about intellectual property, access to medicines, and public health.
It also examined the relationship between international legal harmonization, domestic regulatory autonomy, economic development, and the legitimacy of international intellectual property institutions.
Further Information, Event Description, and Bibliography: https://paolofarah.wordpress.com/2026/07/20/from-trademark-law-to-public-health-governance-intellectual-property-international-treaties-and-the-rule-of-law-in-a-changing-global-order/
Watch the Full Webinar Recording:
WEBINAR 3 – SEPTEMBER 23, 2026
From Environmental Law in Context to Comparative Environmental Governance: Justice, Sustainability, and the Rule of Law
Speakers
- Rebecca Bratspies – Tulane University School of Law, United States
- Carmen G. Gonzalez – Loyola University Chicago School of Law, United States
- Tseming Yang – Santa Clara University School of Law, United States
- Sara K. Phillips – Center for Science in Public Participation, United States
Discussants
- Mekonnen Firew Ayano – University at Buffalo School of Law, State University of New York
- Chinonso Tansi Anozie – University of Houston Law Center
Chair, Moderator, and Discussant
- Paolo Davide Farah – University of Tulsa College of Law
Featured Books
Rebecca Bratspies and Carmen G. Gonzalez
Teaching Environmental Law in Context (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2026).
Tseming Yang, Anastasia Telesetsky, and Sara K. Phillips (eds.)
Comparative Environmental Law (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025).
The webinar examined the relationship between environmental law, comparative legal methodology, environmental justice, sustainability, and the rule of law.
Bringing together two recent publications, the discussion explored the importance of contextual and comparative approaches to environmental governance, including the role of scientific knowledge, Indigenous perspectives, institutional design, environmental inequality, and regulatory accountability.
The discussion also addressed how environmental law can respond to contemporary challenges involving climate change, ecological degradation, energy transitions, and the protection of vulnerable communities.
Further Information, Event Description, and Bibliography: https://paolofarah.wordpress.com/2026/09/05/european-society-of-international-law-esil-interest-group-on-european-and-international-rule-of-law-webinar-series-webinar-3-from-environmental-law-in-context-to-comparative-environme/
Watch the Full Webinar Recording:
ADDITIONAL SCHOLARLY EVENT – JUNE 1, 2026
Indigenous Legal Orders, Legal Pluralism, and the Coloniality of Method Across Comparative Law, International Law, Intellectual Property, and Trade Governance
American Branch of the International Law Association (ABILA) CLE Webinar Series
Speakers and Participants
- Elena Baylis – University of Pittsburgh School of Law
- Sergio Alberto Gramitto Ricci – Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University
- Dana G. Jones – North Carolina Central University School of Law
- Chidi Oguamanam – University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law
- Srividhya Ragavan – Texas A&M University School of Law
Organizer, Chair, Moderator, and Discussant
- Paolo Davide Farah – University of Tulsa College of Law
This event examined Indigenous legal orders, legal pluralism, comparative legal methods, international economic governance, and the relationship between Indigenous knowledge systems and international law.
The discussion explored how Indigenous legal traditions challenge conventional assumptions about legal authority, sovereignty, institutional legitimacy, and the production of legal knowledge.
Particular attention was devoted to the methodological and substantive implications of recognizing Indigenous legal orders within contemporary domestic, transnational, and international legal frameworks.
The event also addressed intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural heritage, Indigenous self-governance, artificial intelligence, institutional bias, and the broader implications of legal pluralism for global governance.
Further Information, Complete Program, Speaker Biographies, and Suggested Readings: https://paolofarah.wordpress.com/2026/04/06/abila-cle-webinar-series-indigenous-legal-orders-legal-pluralism-and-the-coloniality-of-method-in-global-governance/
Detailed Post-Webinar Report and Reflections: https://paolofarah.wordpress.com/2026/06/02/indigenous-legal-orders-legal-pluralism-and-the-coloniality-of-method-in-global-governance-reflections-from-the-abila-cle-webinar/
Complete Collection of Individual Speaker Reflections and Additional Resources: https://paolofarah.wordpress.com/2026/06/19/complete-abila-webinar-collection-and-resource-guide/
Watch the Full Webinar Recording:
III. UNIVERSITY OF TULSA INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM
Tribal Energy Law, Environmental Justice, and Climate Change
March 25, 2026 | University of Tulsa College of Law
I am also pleased to share the newly published recordings of the international symposium Tribal Energy Law, Environmental Justice, and Climate Change, which I organized and chaired at the University of Tulsa College of Law.
The symposium examined critical intersections between tribal sovereignty, energy governance, environmental justice, and climate resilience.
One of its central objectives was to bridge U.S. federal Indian law and comparative and international perspectives on Indigenous peoples, environmental protection, sustainable development, and natural resources governance.
The program brought together scholars from the United States, Europe, and Asia and explored the environmental, legal, economic, and social consequences of energy development and technological transformation for Indigenous communities.
The discussions addressed Indigenous sovereignty and ESG frameworks, energy transitions and environmental justice, critical minerals and nuclear energy, climate displacement, artificial intelligence infrastructure, and Indigenous legal resurgence.
Further Information, Full Symposium Program, and Participants: https://paolofarah.wordpress.com/2026/03/21/tribal-energy-law-environmental-justice-and-climate-change-international-symposium/
PART I – Indigenous Sovereignty, ESG Frameworks, Energy Transitions, and Climate Displacement
Speakers and Presentations
Alberto Iglesias Garzón – CUNEF Universidad, Madrid, Spain
Indigenous Sovereignty, Energy Governance and a Human Rights–Based Assessment of ESG Frameworks
Evgenia I. Gounari – International Hellenic University, Greece
ESG Frameworks in Energy Investments: Standardisation, Contextual Adaptation, and Governance Risks
Obbie Afri – Károli Gáspár University, Budapest, Hungary
Who Pays the Price of Clean Energy? Indigenous Lands and Corporate Projects in Southeast Asia
Soumyaditya Deb, Sujata Arya, and Kshitij Naikade – Symbiosis Law School, Pune, India
Climate Displacement, Environmental Justice, and the Collapse of Tribal Sovereignty for the Mising Indigenous Community of Majuli, Assam, India
Watch the Symposium Recording – Part I:
PART II – Nuclear Energy, AI Infrastructure, Environmental Justice, and Indigenous Legal Resurgence
Speakers and Presentations
Robin M. Rotman – University of Missouri–Columbia
Jhonathan Ordinola Diaz – University of Missouri–Columbia
Sam Carter – Duke University
Indigenous Sovereignty and Nuclear Waste Repository Siting: A Comparative Legal Analysis
Dana G. Jones – North Carolina Central University School of Law
Coding Injustice: AI Infrastructure, Environmental Justice, and Tribal Sovereignty in the Digital Age
Ljavaus Kazangiljan (Wunsyuan Guo) – University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law
Recolonization Through Consultation: Indigenous Legal Resurgence in Taiwan’s Katratripulr Solar Case
Watch the Symposium Recording – Part II:
Chair and Moderator of the International Symposium
Paolo Davide Farah – University of Tulsa College of Law
The symposium was developed through collaboration with academic and professional networks associated with the American Society of International Law (ASIL), the European Society of International Law (ESIL), the American Branch of the International Law Association (ABILA), and gLAWcal – Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development.
These included the ASIL Interest Group on Cultural Heritage and the Arts, the ESIL Interest Groups on European and International Rule of Law and International Environmental Law, and the relevant ABILA committees addressing international human rights, business and human rights, China, and global governance.
IV. LOOKING AHEAD – CONTINUING SCHOLARLY DIALOGUE
Through these initiatives, I hope to continue fostering dialogue across international law, comparative law, international relations, public policy, environmental governance, human rights, Indigenous rights, technological change, and sustainable development.
The broader objective is to bring recent scholarship into conversation with contemporary legal and policy challenges, while encouraging greater engagement between international law, comparative law, public policy, and the social sciences.
I would be delighted to welcome colleagues from AAAS and our wider professional networks to the forthcoming webinars on December 9, 2026, and January 27, 2027.
Both events are free and open to the international academic and professional community.
Registration details, complete programs, and additional information will be circulated shortly.
I would also be grateful if you could share these opportunities and recordings with colleagues, researchers, doctoral students, and other interested participants.
Thank you very much for your interest and continued engagement. I look forward to welcoming many of you to these conversations.
With very best wishes,
Paolo Davide Farah
Professor of Law
University of Tulsa College of Law
Chair, ESIL Interest Group on European and International Rule of Law
Chair, ILA Study Group on International Law, Global Challenges, and the Impact of Emerging Powers on Global Governance
Chair, ABILA Committee on China, Other Emerging Powers and Global Challenges
President, gLAWcal – Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development