Prof Damilola S. Olawuyi

Professor Damilola S. Olawuyi, SAN is a full professor and UNESCO Chair on Environmental Law and Sustain- able Development at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar. He is also chancellor’s fellow at the OGEES Institute, Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria. In 2022, he was appointed independent expert on the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights. Prior to this, he served as an independent expert on the African Union’s Working Group on extractive industries, environment, and human rights violations in Africa.

Professor Olawuyi holds a doctorate (DPhil) in Energy and Environmental Law from the University of Oxford; a Master of Laws (LLM) from Harvard University; and another LLM from the University of Calgary. He has been admitted as a barrister and solicitor in Alberta, Canada; Ontario, Canada, and in Nigeria. He serves on the executive committees and boards of several organisations. He is Vice Chair of the International Law Association globally. In recognition of his “substantial contribution to legal scholarship and jurisprudence,” Professor Olawuyi was awarded the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (King’s Counsel equivalent) in the year 2020, therefore becoming the youngest academic ever elevated to the rank. In 2021, he was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari as a member of the Governing Board of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI). He has served as co-chairman of the Legal Education Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association. A prolific and highly regarded scholar, Professor Olawuyi has published over 150 influential peer-reviewed articles, books, and reports on energy finance, sustainable development law and extractive resource governance. His most recent book publications include: Environmental Law in Arab States (Oxford University Press, 2022), Business and Human Rights Law and Practice in Africa (Edward Elgar, 2022), Local Content and Sustainable Development in Global Energy Markets (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Extractives Industry Law in Africa (Springer 2018), The Human Rights Based Approach to Carbon Finance (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and Climate Change Law and Policy in the Middle East and North Africa Region (Routledge, 2021).

Professor Olawuyi was formerly an international energy lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, Calgary, where he served on the firm’s global committee on extractive resource investments in Africa. He has lectured on energy and environmental law in over 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. He has served as a visiting professor at Columbia Law School, New York, University of Cambridge, University of Birmingham, China University of Political Science and Law and senior visiting research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. In 2022, served as Bok Visiting International Professor (VIP) at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, USA. Further information about his profile and publications can be found at:

www.damilolaolawuyi.com