Melbourne Energy Institute

The Energy Law and Regulation program is concerned with all aspects of governance of the energy industries within Australia and beyond.  It involves both the design and evaluation of the institutional framework applicable to the energy industries, including arrangements at numerous levels of government (international, national, state, regional and local) together with intergovernmental mechanisms required to achieve cooperation across and within levels of government.

The range of issues embraced by the program is broad and open-ended:

• allocation of constitutional power over energy resources;
• proprietorship of energy resources;
• statutory and contractual regimes governing exploration for and exploitation of energy resources by private enterprise;
• fiscal arrangements applicable to the energy industries;
• revenue-sharing between governments and with indigenous peoples;
• competition as a regulatory instrument;
• intellectual property rights to energy technologies;
• resource management in controlled vs market economies;
• legal and regulatory instruments for environmental protection;
• energy consumption and climate change;
• uranium production and use;
• and arrangements designed to achieve energy security.

At the University of Melbourne, researchers work closely with Australian and foreign governments, private enterprise, international agencies, non-government organizations, indigenous groups, professional bodies and public interest organizations in examining the effectiveness of the legal and regulatory framework applicable to the energy industries, contributing expertise derived from research and teaching and gaining practical experience in resolving challenging problems inherent in the management of energy resources.

Contact

• Prof Michael Crommelin