Academic Advisory Group

Overview
Committee Officers

Overview

The Academic Advisory Group (AAG) has been a distinctive, if not unique, part of SEERIL (and earlier SERL) for over 20 years.  The AAG began informally in the early 1980s when SERL members, who held academic assignments, gathered to explore common interests.  The AAG pioneers felt that worldwide academic collaboration among energy and natural resources scholars would be an excellent idea.  They further felt, and SERL leadership heartily agreed, that SERL could benefit from the structured contributions of their professor members.

A tradition quickly started of having the AAG be responsible for one portion of the biennial SERL seminars.  By the late 1980s the AAG members had committed to a two year cycle that would allow exhaustive treatment of cutting edge issues in energy and natural resources law.  The cycle began at one SERL Seminar with the selection of the topic for research.  Individual members would then pursue their research for one year, typically highlighting their countries’ approach to the topic.  At the 'mid-term' meeting of the AAG these papers would be presented and critiqued.  A final research agenda was prepared that often called for collaborative papers from the members.  Those papers would be completed and presented at the next SERL Seminar where the topic for the next cycle would be selected.

The quality of the written product prompted publication beyond just the Seminar programme.  Early projects appeared in the Journal of Energy and Natural Resources Law.  Kluwer Law Publishers produced Kyoto:  From Principles to Practice in 2001.  The last two AAG projects Human Rights in Natural Resources Development, Public Participation in the Sustainable Development of Mining and Energy Resources in 2003 and Energy Security in 2005 have been published by Oxford University Press.

Those three topics—climate change, public participation in resource development, and energy security—suggest the diversity of AAG coverage.  These projects joined earlier AAG ventures that considered reclamation of resources projects, trade and energy resources, and market liberalisation and privatisation.  The current topic considering regulatory change in the 21st century again reflects the AAG members’ willingness to work in a moving stream. 'The challenge (and fun) of the AAG projects is to select topics that are of real-world cutting-edge interest - to SEERIL practitioners, public officials, opinion leaders, and academia - yet futuristic enough to contribute something new to everyone's legal knowledge.'

A reason for the success and longevity of the AAG has been the gradual change of membership over the years.  The gradual element has allowed decade long collaborative friendships to evolve.  These have often continued on work outside the AAG realm.  The change has allowed a geographic broadening of the membership and an expansion of the areas of research specialisation.  Yet, with permanent membership never exceeding 20, we are a band of sisters and brothers rather than just another international organisation.  Members have gone on to distinguish themselves in other fields, none more so than International Court of Justice member Rosalyn Higgins.  AAG members have also served as Deans or Directors at the University of Melbourne, the University of Texas, the University of Calgary, the University of Maine, and the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies.  Members also hold endowed chairs and professorships at their Universities.  Membership remains open for new young, and not so young, scholars with demonstrated research capabilities in SEERIL’s areas of specialisation who are excited about the advantages of international collaboration in their field.

Committee Officers