Energy Justice & the Social Contract Chair

Energy Justice & the Social Contract ChairPlacing justice at the heart of energy transitions to build a new social contract

The EJ&SC Chair is based on the establishment of an international centre of excellence for research on energy justice with the aim of designing a new social contract and concreting the transformations called for by the low-carbon transition.

From a legal perspective, the Chair aims to develop innovative interdisciplinary approaches to thinking about energy justice in a systemic and applied way. Our work analyses the concept of energy justice and the way in which it should be formalised in a new “social contract” involving all energy sector and society stakeholders.

We focus on improving legal mechanisms at local, national and international levels to ensure that justice becomes the raison d’être of energy law and permeates legal systems. We support that a better integration of justice issues is a basis for building a new social contract in the energy sector over time.

This social contract would help to improve efforts to achieve key transformations such as

• meeting climate change targets,
• developing low-carbon energy technologies, 
• reducing the environmental impact of the energy sector,
• increasing employment.

Interdisciplinary in aims as in means, the Chair is supported by an international scientific committee connecting distinguished scholars in the field of energy justice. It is also linked with the French and European institutional and associative worlds, particularly through a platform aiming at producing, valuating, and transferring knowledge to the European institutions on energy, climate and sustainability law and justice. This platform brings together several prestigious research institutions in energy law.

Energy Justice & the Social Contract Chair Holders

Raphael Heffron

A graduate of Trinity College Dublin and the universities of Oxford (MSc) and Cambridge (MPhil and PhD), Raphael Heffron has taught at the British universities of Stirling, Leeds, Queen Mary University of London, and Dundee, as well as at the University of the West Indies at St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. He has twice held a Jean Monnet Chair awarded by the European Commission for three years.

His work focuses on achieving a just transition to a low-carbon economy.

Raphael Heffron has published over 200 publications of different types and is the most cited academic in his field worldwide (3400+ Scopus/GoogleScholar 6500). His work has been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Persian, Turkish, Spanish, French and Italian. He has also given over 200 lectures in 62 countries..

Louis de Fontenelle

Louis de Fontenelle is a legal expert and senior lecturer in public law at the TREE laboratory (University of Pau and Pays de l’Adour, CNRS). His work focuses on law and justice issues related to energy and environmental transitions, natural resources and sustainable mobility.

In this context, he leads several national and international research projects with an interdisciplinary approach, in collaboration with stakeholders.

He also works with local authorities, public institutions, associations and companies for consulting, training and legal expertise activities.