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). 

• 2000: Mentor Spring 2022, Global Policy, Diplomacy, and Sustainability Program:
• 2000: 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.

Authored book

• Woolley, O. (2023). Renewable Energy Law. Hart Publishing. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781509936496
• Woolley, O. (2014). Ecological Governance: Reappraising Law's Role in Protecting Ecosystem Functionality. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781107447080

Chapter in book

• Woolley, O. (2022). Renewable Energy and the Law of the Sea. In J. Kraska, & Y. Park (Eds.), Emerging Technology and the Law of the Sea (35-62). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009042178.003
• Woolley, O. (2021). Climate Law and Environmental Law: Is Conflict Between Them Inevitable?. In B. Mayer, & A. Zahar (Eds.), Debating Climate Law (398-411). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108879064.029
• Woolley, O. (2021). Ecological Law in the Anthropocene. In K. Anker, P. Burdon, G. Garver, M. Maloney, & C. Sbert (Eds.), From Environmental to Ecological Law. Routledge
• Woolley, O. (2021). Regulating the promotion of renewable electricity consumption and production: a European Union case study. In M. Roggenkamp, K. de Graaf, & R. Fleming (Eds.), Energy Law, Climate Change, and the Environment (388-398). Edward Elgar Publishing
• Woolley, O. (2021). Renewable Energy Consumption. In E. Woerdman, M. Roggenkamp, & M. Holwerda (Eds.), Essential EU Climate Law: 2nd edition (98-129). (2nd ed.). Edward Elgar Publishing
• Woolley, O. (2017). Developing Countries under the International Climate Change Regime: How does the Paris Agreement Change Their Position?. In Z. Yihdego, M. G. Desta, & F. Merso (Eds.), Ethiopian Yearbook of International Law 2016 (179-200). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55898-1
• Woolley, O. (2016). Replacing Fossil Fuel Generation with Renewable Electricity: is Market Integration or Market Circumvention the way forward?. In R. J. Heffron, & G. F. Little (Eds.), Delivering Energy Law and Policy in the EU and the US: A Reader (179-183). Edinburgh University Press
• Woolley, O. (2015). Renewable energy consumption. In E. Woerdman, M. Roggenkamp, & M. Holwerda (Eds.), Essential EU Climate Law (125-156). Edward Elgar Publishing
• Woolley, O. (2012). Overcoming Legal Challenges for Offshore Electricity Grid Development: a case study of the Cobra and Kriegers Flak Projects. In M. M. Roggenkamp, & O. Woolley (Eds.), European Energy Law Report IX (169-195). Intersentia
• Woolley, O., Schaumberg, P. J., & Michel, G. S. (2012). Establishing an Offshore Electricity Grid:A Legal Analysis of Grid Developments in the North Sea and in US Waters. In M. M. Roggenkamp, L. Barrera-Hernandez, D. N. Zillman, & I. D. Guayo (Eds.), Energy Networks and the Law: Innovative Solutions in Changing Markets (180-204). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof%3Aoso/9780199645039.001.0001

Journal Article

• Woolley, O. Governing a North Sea Grid Development: The Need for a Regional Framework Treaty. Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, 14(1), 73-97
• Woolley, O., & Harrington, C. (2022). Law and governance in the Anthropocene. Global Policy, 13(S3), 5-10. https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.13168
• Woolley, O. (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 & International Environmental Law, 29(1), 76-85. https://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12310
• Woolley, O. (2016). The Paris Climate Change Agreement: a new stimulus for international efforts to promote renewable energy development. Environmental Law & Management, 28(5), 185-200
• Woolley, O. (2015). Ecological Governance in Offshore Wine Energy in United Kingdom Waters: Has an Effective Legal Framework Been Established for Preventing Ecologically Harmful Development?
• Woolley, O. (2013). Reforming Gas Sector Governance to Promote Biomethane Injection
• Woolley, O. (2010). Trouble on the Horizon?: Addressing Place-based Values in Planning for Offshore Wind Energy. Journal of Environmental Law, 22(2), 223-250