In 2015, at 32, Professor Olawuyi was promoted to Full Professor of Law at Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria, making him one of the youngest full professors of law in Nigerian history. He serves as Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Chancellor’s Fellow, and Director of the Institute for Oil, Gas, Energy, Environment, and Sustainable Development (OGEES Institute) at Afe Babalola University, Nigeria. He teaches energy and environmental law courses as the UNESCO Chair on Environmental Law and Sustainable Development at HBKU Law School in Doha, Qatar. Additionally, Professor Olawuyi provides legal services as a Senior Counsel and Arbitrator at McNair International Law Firm. A prolific and highly regarded scholar, Professor Olawuyi has practised and taught law in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. He 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 was formerly deputy director and head of international environmental law at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Waterloo, Canada. 

Professor Olawuyi is a distinguished author of various journal articles and books focusing on natural resources, energy, and environmental law. He has also participated in multiple international conferences as an expert speaker and commentator. Some of his recent publications include Environmental Law in Arab States (Oxford University Press, 2022), Local Content and Sustainable Development in Global Energy Markets (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Climate Change Law and Policy in the Middle East and North Africa Region (Routledge, 2021), Extractives Industry Law in Africa (Springer, 2018), and The Human Rights-Based Approach to Carbon Finance (Cambridge University Press, 2016).

Professor Olawuyi holds various prominent positions in the field of international law. He serves as the Vice Chair of the International Law Association and as a member of the Academic Advisory Group of the International Bar Association’s Section on Energy, Environment, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure Law (SEERIL). He is also the co-chair of the Africa Interest Group of the American Society of International Law (2016-2019) and a Senior Research Fellow of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law in Montreal, Canada. Furthermore, he is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy and an Associate Editor of the Carbon and Climate Law Review. In addition, he is a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Chartered Arbitrators and a member of the Governing Council of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria.

Professor Olawuyi is a highly experienced lecturer on energy and environmental law. He has given lectures in over 50 countries, including Qatar, Great Britain, Greece, France, Denmark, the United States, Australia, Spain, China, India, Kenya, the Netherlands, Canada and Nigeria. Recently, he served as a BOK Visiting International Professor (VIP) at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. He has also received the Herbert Smith Freehills Visiting Professorship at the University of Cambridge in the UK and the IAS Vanguard Fellowship of the University of Birmingham. In addition, Professor Olawuyi has served as a visiting professor of law at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, a University Research Fellow at the Consortium for Peace Studies at the University of Calgary, and a David Sive Scholar at Columbia Law School in New York, United States.

Professor Olawuyi was awarded the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (equivalent to Queen’s Counsel) in 2020, at thirty-seven, for his significant contribution to legal scholarship and jurisprudence. He is the youngest academic to attain this rank and the first private university graduate to become a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. Additionally, from 2020-2022, Professor Olawuyi served as an Independent Expert on the African Commission’s Working Group on Extractive Industries, Environment, and Human Rights. In 2021, he was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari as a member of the Governing Board of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI). Finally, he was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to represent Africa as an Independent Expert on the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights in 2022.

Professor Olawuyi has been admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor in Alberta, Canada; Ontario, Canada; and Nigeria. He is an expert in petroleum law, international environmental law, business and human rights in the global economy, climate change law and policy, natural resources law and policy, food and agricultural law, project finance, entrepreneurship law, and international commercial arbitration. He is also a regular media commentator on all aspects of energy, the environment, and sustainable development.