School of Law research on the Environment, Sustainability and Regulation (ES&R)

Environment and sustainability is one of the School's key research strengths.

We collaborate with leading institutions both nationally and internationally to proffer innovative law and policy solutions for major environmental and sustainability challenges. This covers a broad spectrum of issues, from longstanding environmental challenges to newer and emerging concerns.

Research interests

Dr Prince Olokotor & Prof Engobo Emeseh have research focused on pollution and legislation.
Dr Ilias Kapsis, Prof Engobo Emeseh, & Dr Prince Olokotor are working together on research looking at corporate social responsibility and accountability
Prof Emeseh has lead research programmes which are concerned with natural resources policy and governance.
Dr Sanna Elfving & Prof Emeseh have been engaged in research on conventional and unconventional energy, decarbonisation, climate change, renewable energy and SDGs.

The School’s research is applied and action-oriented. Staff are engaged in knowledge transfer activities, capacity development and policy formulation.

Featured ES&R research

Professor Emeseh, Head of School, has a demonstrated leadership for her environment and sustainability research. Her particular interests include policy and regulatory responses to corporate wrongdoing in the natural resources sector in the developing world, particularly Africa, environmental justice, the SDGs, and the interface between international economic law and environmental governance.

She has led the establishment of several initiatives to create spaces for discourse, networking, capacity building, and policy development both within and outside academia, often working with civil society groups, intergovernmental organisations, and with government and their agencies.

She is currently a member of the Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission chaired by the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu. The Commission aims to develop a set of informed recommendations that lead to the development of a new legal framework that ensures accountability and an action plan for a healthy environment. It does this by ensuring appropriate clean-up and remediation of impacted sites, and that host communities receive sufficient compensation for the impacts of environmental pollution and degradation and reap the benefits from the production of oil within their communities.