Researching Energy Law

While energy is a popular topic at the law school, finding resources is not always straightforward.

The general topic of Energy can be found in several locations in the library’s collection. Materials can be found in the “Environmental Law” sections of both US law (on the 3^rd floor, KF3775-3813) and International Law (on the 1^st floor, K3581-K3598). If you are searching for foreign law, a good place to begin might be in the International Encyclopaedia of Laws: Energy Law where you can look at the energy laws of 22 foreign countries and the United States (in print at K3478, or online). 

You can also locate foreign energy legislation in the Foreign Law Guide database  (law students have full access, subscription required). If you want to find a book on the energy law or policy of a particular country, use the country’s name + “Energy” as the starting point for a search.

If you are trying to decide on a topic for your paper, try looking at the subject headings to focus your ideas and to get a general idea about the legal resources available. Some of the major subject headings include: [Energy] Conservation, [Energy] Consumption, [Energy] Development, [Energy] Policy, and [Energy] Tax. Doing this will also give you some idea of the resources available at our library in those areas.

You may also want to start by looking at the various types of energy, always remembering that there may be a variety of terms that you will want to use in your search. Nuclear power, biomass, coal, geothermal, petroleum, solar, and wind energy may be found in the same general area of the library, but will be in different places depending on if you are looking at law (in the “Ks” sections on the first and third floors) or if you want to find policy or management issues.

It is generally recommended that before jumping into a search, that one make a list of possible search terms as each will retrieve a different subset of results (although some my overlap, and some databases may cross-reference terms), and different databases may use different terms. Look for both synonyms (atomic / nuclear or petroleum / oil & gas) and related terms (renewable / alternative or power / energy).

And, don’t forget to use these databases, only available to students, faculty, and staff of the law school.

• BNA (Bureau of National Affairs) - Collection of treatises, reports, journals and newsletters. Major topics include banking, tax, employment, privacy, intellectual property, medical, international trade and environmental resources. 
• Daily Environment Report
• Environment and Energy Publishing - Source for comprehensive, daily coverage of environmental and energy policy and markets. Includes Environment & Energy Daily, ClimateWire, Greenwire, and Land Letter, as well as specialized reports.
• Environment & Safety Library
• Environment Complete - Offers deep coverage in applicable areas of environmental law, energy, renewable energy sources, natural resources, public ppolicy and more. Contains full-text for more than 680 journals and 120 books.
• Environment Reporter - Current Reports
• Environmental Due Diligence Report
• Environmental Law Reporter - Federal, state and international materials on topics such as environmental law, natural resources, energy, toxic tort, safety and health, and land use law.
• Federal Environment & Safety Regulatory Monitoring Report

Finally, you may want to use a good research guide such as the ASIL electronic resource guide to International Environmental Law, or Georgetown ‘s Energy Law guide.

Written by Joan Policastri, Foreign, Comparative & International Law Librarian