Frédéric Sourgens

Frédéric G. Sourgens is the James McCulloch Chair in Energy Law at Tulane Law School and Director of the Tulane Center for Energy Law.

He joined the Tulane Law Faculty in 2023. Prior to teaching at Tulane, Sourgens served as the Senator Robert J. Dole Distinguished Professor of Law at Washburn University School of Law.  

The American Branch of the International Law Association (ABILA) recently recognized his bookGood Faith in Transnational Law, A Pluralist Account (Brill Nijhoff, 2022) as Book of the Year 2023.

Sourgens is the co-lead investigator with OPEC’s General Legal Counsel, Leonardo Sempértegui of the energy transition policy and regulatory briefs project for the Organization of Petroleum Producing States (OPEC). He is the Chair of the Southwest Institute for International and Comparative Law and a member of the Executive Committee and chair of the Academic Outreach Committee for the Institute for Energy Law.

Sourgens is active in the governance of the American Society of  International Law, where he currently serves a three-year term on its executive council. He holds multiple editorial appointments including Editor-in-Chief of Oxford University Press' Investment Claims reporter of international arbitral awards between states and foreign investors and serving on the editorial boards of the Brill Research Perspectives in International Investment Law and Arbitration as well as the American Review of International Arbitration (Columbia University School of Law). 

His most recent books are International Legal Principles of Energy Transition with Leonardo Sempértegui (Oxford University Press, forthcoming November 2023), Good Faith in Transnational Law, A Pluralist Account (Brill Nijhoff, 2022), International Petroleum Law and Transactions (Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, 2020) (with Owen Anderson, John S Dzienkowski, Keith Hall, John Lowe, Harry Sullivan & Jacqueline Weaver), Decarbonisation and the Energy Industry, Law, Policy and Regulation in Low-Carbon Energy Markets (Hart Publishing 2020) (with Tade Oyewunmi, Penelope Crossley & Kim Talus) and Evidence in International Investment Arbitration (Oxford University Press 2018) (with Kabir Duggal & Ian Laird). He is currently co-authoring ‘The Transnational Law of Renewable Energy’ with Teddy Baldwin and Catherine Banet (under contract, Oxford University Press), as well as the second editions of ‘Experiencing Arbitration’ and ‘Experiencing International Arbitration: Resolving Cross-Border Disputes’ both with Michael Nolan (West Academic).

Before entering academia, Sourgens practiced law at Fulbright & Jaworski LLP in Houston (now Norton Rose Fulbright) and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP in Washington DC (now Milbank).