Property and the Law in Energy and Natural Resources

This edited collection examines the multiple interfaces between property law and energy and natural resources law. It deals with perennial questions about the ownership of energy and natural resources and with cutting-edge topics such as the role of property rights in environmental regulation and the property rights of indigenous communities.

The law of energy and natural resources has always had a strong focus on property as one of its components, but there are relatively few comparative, book-length, treatments of both property law and energy and natural resources law. The aim of this edited collection is to explore the multiple dimensions of the contemporary relationship between property and energy and natural resources law. Its genesis was the growing resurgence of global interest in questions of property in energy and resources and how it manifests itself across legal regimes around the world. With an international and comparative character, the collection seeks to capture differences in the meaning of property, and the different views about the role it should play in a diverse range of contexts: civil law and common law; the law of indigenous communities; public law and private law; and national and international law. Key issues discussed include private rights and common property situations, privatization and regulation, competition for land use and resources, the role of property rights in environmental protection, and the balance between national sovereignty and the security of foreign investment. The collection thus has relevance for a wide readership interested in the legal dimensions of property as an increasingly important aspect of the law for energy and resources across diverse countries, and at the international level. The contributors are established experts in the energy and natural resources law field, and the collection builds upon a body of previous collaborative work in this area.