In November 2003, the Commission on Environmental Law (CEL) of IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) launched a new scholarly network of environmental law faculties and professors: the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law. The IUCN Academy is a consortium of specialized research centers in university law faculties throughout the world and will constitute a learned society examining how law advances a just society that values and conserves nature. As part of the mandate of the Academy, a significant topic of interregional research will be identified each year and the results presented at an annual meeting and published for wide dissemination. The research focus for 2003 is ‘The Law of Energy for Sustainable Development’. As part of this effort, the Academy has assembled for the first time a volume of legal instruments which can be recognized as constituting the core of the law of energy for sustainable development. This volume will be an essential reference for all involved in environmental and energy research.