Staff profile

Short Biography

Dr Woolley researches and teaches in the fields of environmental law, law and ecology, and energy law. Her research in these areas considers law's role in facilitating and securing socio-economic transition towards ecological sustainability. She also focuses in her energy research on renewable energy law, particularly law relating to the production of energy from renewable sources offshore. She joined the Durham Law School in January 2020 after seven years as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Aberdeen. She worked in legal practice as a solicitor specialising in dispute resolution in the 1990s and 2000s before undertaking a PhD in Law at University College London (received in 2012). 

• Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences

• 0000: Editor of the Energy Law volume for the Oxford University Press Encyclopedia of EU Law: I have been appointed by Oxford University Press to edit the Energy Law volume of its Encyclopedia of European Union Law. ;Initial contents will begin to be published online from 2021.
• 0000: Mentor Spring 2022, Global Policy, Diplomacy, and Sustainability Program:

Available for media contact about:

• Law & Crime: Environmental Law
• European Law: Environmental Law
• International Law: Environmental Law
• Law & Crime: Low Carbon Energy Transition and Law
• European Law: Low Carbon Energy Transition and Law
• International Law: Low Carbon Energy Transition and Law
• Law & Crime: Law and Ecology

Authored book

• Woolley, Olivia (2023). Renewable Energy Law. Hart Publishing.
• Woolley, Olivia (2014). Ecological Governance: Reappraising Law's Role in Protecting Ecosystem Functionality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chapter in book

• Woolley, Olivia (2022). Renewable Energy and the Law of the Sea. In Emerging Technology and the Law of the Sea. Kraska, J. & Park, Y-K. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 35-62.
• Woolley, Olivia (2021). Climate Law and Environmental Law: Is Conflict Between Them Inevitable? In Debating Climate Law. Mayer, Benoit & Zahar, Alexander Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 398-411.
• Woolley, O. A (2021). Ecological Law in the Anthropocene. In From Environmental to Ecological Law. Anker, K., Burdon, P., Garver, G., Maloney, M. & Sbert, C. Routledge.
• Woolley, Olivia (2021). Regulating the promotion of renewable electricity consumption and production: a European Union case study. In Energy Law, Climate Change, and the Environment. Roggenkamp, M. M., de Graaf, K. & Fleming, R. C. Edward Elgar. IX: 388-398.
• Woolley, Olivia (2021). Renewable Energy Consumption. In Essential EU Climate Law. Woerdman, E., Roggenkamp, M. M. & Holwerda, M. Edward Elgar. 98-129.
• Olivia Woolley (2017). Developing Countries under the International Climate Change Regime: How does the Paris Agreement Change Their Position? In Ethiopian Yearbook of International Law 2016. Zeray Yihdego, Malaku Geboye Desta & Fikremarkos Merso Springer. 179-200.
• Olivia Woolley (2016). Replacing Fossil Fuel Generation with Renewable Electricity: is Market Integration or Market Circumvention the way forward? In Delivering Energy Law and Policy in the EU and the US: A Reader. Raphael J. Heffron & Gavin F. M. Little Edinburgh University Press. 179-183.
• Olivia Woolley (2015). Renewable energy consumption. In Essential EU Climate Law. Edwin Woerdman, Martha Roggenkamp & Marijn Holwerda Edward Elgar. 125-156.
• Olivia Woolley, Peter J. Schaumberg & Graham St Michel (2012). Establishing an Offshore Electricity Grid:A Legal Analysis of Grid Developments in the North Sea and in US Waters. In Energy Networks and the Law: Innovative Solutions in Changing Markets. Martha M. Roggenkamp, Lila Barrera-Hernandez, Donald N. Zillman & Inigo del Guayo Oxford University Press. 180-204.
• Olivia Woolley (2012). Overcoming Legal Challenges for Offshore Electricity Grid Development: a case study of the Cobra and Kriegers Flak Projects. In European Energy Law Report IX. Martha M. Roggenkamp & Olivia Woolley Intersentia. 169-195.

Journal Article

• Woolley, Olivia & Harrington, Cameron (2022). Law and governance in the Anthropocene. Global Policy 13(S3): 5-10.
• Olivia Woolley (2020). What Would Ecological Climate Change Law Look Like?: Developing a Method for Analysing the International Climate Change Regime from an Ecological Perspective. Review of European, Comparative and International Environmental Law (RECIEL) 29(1): 76-85.
• Olivia Woolley (2016). The Paris Climate Change Agreement: a new stimulus for international efforts to promote renewable energy development. Environmental Law and Management 28(5): 185-200.
• Olivia Woolley (2015). Ecological Governance in Offshore Wine Energy in United Kingdom Waters: Has an Effective Legal Framework Been Established for Preventing Ecologically Harmful Development? International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 30(4): 765-793.
• Olivia Woolley (2013). Governing a North Sea Grid Development: The Need for a Regional Framework Treaty. Competition and Regulation in Network Industries 14(1): 73-97.
• Olivia Woolley (2013). Reforming Gas Sector Governance to Promote Biomethane Injection. Renewable Energy Law and Policy 4(3): 175-188.
• Olivia Woolley (2010). Trouble on the Horizon?: Addressing Place-based Values in Planning for Offshore Wind Energy. Journal of Environmental Law 22(2): 223-250.