University of Maine at Presque Isle President Don Zillman has garnered another publication by one of the most prestigious academic presses in the world. Energy Networks and the Law: Innovative Solutions in Changing Markets, which Zillman co-edited with Martha M. Roggenkamp, Lila Barrera-Hernandez and Inigo del Guayo, was published by Oxford University Press in 2012.

Oxford University Press, which has a rich history that can be traced back to the earliest days of printing, describes itself as the “largest university press in the world.”

Energy Networks and the Law provides an overview of the legal challenges governments and other entities face when dealing with energy networks – the “physical frame of the energy market” that carries, transmits, and otherwise moves energy in its many forms to consumers. Energy networks include everything from oil and gas pipelines to electric transmission and distribution lines. Some of the legal challenges connected with these energy networks are environmental protection, international jurisdiction, and business regulation.

The book features an international team of editors – Roggenkamp is from the Netherlands, Barrera-Hernandez from Argentina, and del Guayo from Spain. Its 25 authors are from places like China, Russia, the European Union, Australia and Brazil.

“This geographic diversity allowed the book to provide an accurate sense of what’s happening around the globe right now with energy networks and their legal challenges,” President Zillman said. “The wide range of issues that different countries are facing in terms of energy transmission and distribution is just fascinating. It was quite exciting as an editor to be able to pull all of these analyses and perspectives together and present a comprehensive and insightful look at the issues.”

The idea for Energy Networks and the Law was formed during a biennial meeting of the Academic Advisory Group of the International Bar Association’s Section of Energy, Environment, Resources and Infrastructure Law [SEERIL]. At its April 2010 meeting in Toronto, the group vetted possible topics for its next biennium study and elected to explore energy networks and their legal implications. Several SEERIL members selected individual topics to cover as part of the book, and other authors were selected to write chapters on topics that would ensure a comprehensive look at the subject.

As part of the manuscript process, President Zillman was able to travel to the Netherlands last summer to meet and work on draft chapters with the book’s editors and authors. The event, held at the Groningen Centre of Energy Law at the 400-year-old University of Groningen in the northern Netherlands, involved the presentation of individual papers, strong critiques on them, and group sessions on the shape of the final book. The book’s editors also spent time crafting the introduction and conclusion.

Energy Networks and the Law will be officially presented at the next SEERIL meeting, which will be held in Santiago, Chile, in April 2012.