Professional LLM In Energy And Infrastructure Law - OsgoodePD

Skip to main content

• Home
• Academic Programs
• Part-Time Professional LLMs

Remind Me Part-Time Professional LLM in Energy and Infrastructure Law Download Brochure Information Sessions Apply Now Remind Me

Full-time/part-time

Part-time

Distance learning

Yes

LLB/JD degree required

No

Location

Downtown, Toronto

Professional LLM in Energy and Infrastructure Law

OsgoodePD’s Professional LLM in Energy and Infrastructure Law is a graduate program designed specifically for working professionals. Each of our distinct specializations focuses on interdisciplinary learning and provides you with a unique mix of academic, applied, and theoretical perspectives. You will learn through interactive discussions and explore practical issues related to your specialization. You’ll have access to a wide range of elective options to broaden your legal knowledge or explore new areas related to your professional interests.

The Energy and Infrastructure Law specialization offers an in-depth examination into the policies, players, and stakeholders involved in a highly complex area with social, political, and environmental issues at hand. Core courses address changing paradigms in energy regulation, environmental protection, mining law, and more. You will explore and harness a sophisticated set of legal skills and a solid understanding of energy and infrastructure law framework.

Who is the Specialization for?

Lawyers or law graduates with legal work experience who have a strong demonstrated interest in energy and infrastructure and wish to establish or expand a practice in this area of specialization 

Senior non-legal professionals who have exposure to regulatory compliance, navigating project financing structures, or ensuring adherence to environment and energy policies in a professional context. Past students include: · Managers in environmental compliance, insurance, risk management and regulatory affairs · Quality assurance, compliance, contracts and documentation professionals · Policy and government affairs professionals · Engineers with management or leadership roles in the electricity, energy or extractive sectors

Apply NowSee Admission Requirements

Alumni Spotlights

Imran Noorani

Imran is the Chief Operating Officer at Inaru. Here, he discusses how the Osgoode Professional LLM in Energy and Infrastructure Law has a profound impact on his career.

Learn More About Imran

Marty Venalainen

Marty is currently working as Director, Transactions Legal at Infrastructure Ontario. In deciding to continue his studies by pursuing an LLM, Marty was drawn to the part-time structure of the program, which allowed him to balance his studies with his employment and family life.

Learn More About Marty Read More Alumni Spotlights

Student Services

All Professional LLM students can benefit from our wide range of student services:

Academic Services

Program Orientation

Introductory Courses

Workshops & Resources

Confidential Academic and Wellness Counselling

Career Support

Job Postings

Resources/Guides

Workshops & Events

Counselling

Campus Life

Student Social Activities

Osgoode & York U Extra Curriculars

Professional Networking Events

All of our academic and career development services are available remotely, and counselling hours have varied schedules to suit the needs of part-time students.

Learn more about our services

Information Session

Interested in our part-time Professional LLM in Energy and Infrastructure Law? In this on demand session, you will learn more about course offerings, degree requirements, what to expect during your studies and the steps to apply.

Degree Requirements

The Professional LLM in Energy and Infrastructure Law requires the completion of 36 credits including a research requirement. The program is designed to be completed in two years (six active terms) through a combination a combination of Energy and Infrastructure Law elective courses and up to 6 credits of outside electives.

Elective Courses:

Elective courses generally run once every two years.

Changing Paradigms in Energy Regulation Open Accordion

Credits: 6.0

This course examines multiple energy regulation models. The range of approaches provides the opportunity to use Ontario and other markets as test cases to consider the debates that plague energy restructuring across a number of jurisdictions. The issues that arise include: (1) The social and economic rationale for a vertically integrated publicly owned monopoly; (2) from monopoly to market – the transition to a competitive electricity market; (3) from market to central planning – hybrid systems; (4) the green economy model of energy regulation.

Climate Change: International Governance, Mitigation and Adaptation Open Accordion

Credits: 3.0

This course focuses on the current international legal and policy frameworks in place to address the global phenomenon of climate change. These frameworks have been developed over time and include the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as well as the Paris Agreement which highlights the key points for the post-2020 climate change regime including Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). In addition, students will learn about the following topics in relation to climate change and law: (1) Foundational concepts regarding the science of climate change; (2) Strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strategies to adapt to climate change; (3) The economics of climate change and the role of economics and climate finance in addressing climate change.

Demand Side Management: Policy and Regulation Open Accordion

Credits: 3.0

This course looks at the policy and regulation of resource efficiency efforts, primarily through the lens of the recent electricity efficiency experience in Ontario. The course will cover the following topics: (1) The policy rationale for a focus on energy efficiency: what is energy efficiency, why does the demand side matter, a brief history of energy efficiency in Ontario; (2) The case for and against energy efficiency from an economic, technological and political perspective; (3) The role and regulation of utility involvement in energy efficiency: what role have utilities played in energy efficiency; does this role make sense from the perspective of the government, the customer and the desired outcomes

Energy and Infrastructure Innovation: Law and Policy Open Accordion

Credits: 3.0

This course focusses on innovation in the fields of energy and infrastructure. The legislative, regulatory and policy frameworks, including standards and incentives, that exist to promote and spur energy and infrastructure innovation will be examined. Students will also examine: innovation theory and history, R&D collaboration agreements, funding and financing options, the fundamentals of the intellectual property dimensions of innovation, the challenges to commercializing new and innovative technologies, and case studies of innovative companies that succeeded as well as those that failed. Innovation law and policy will be examined through various lenses including economic, environmental and international.

Energy Transition and Energy Infrastructure Open Accordion

Credits: 3.0

This course equips students to examine how current energy regulation can evolve to increase lower carbon energy supply including renewable electricity and low carbon fuels like renewable natural gas, hydrogen and fossil fuels paired with carbon sequestration or utilization. Students are required to identify a barrier to increasing a low carbon energy source and propose a legislative or regulatory solution.

Environmental Protection Open Accordion

Credits: 6.0

Environmental regulation and control has become of major concern to municipalities and environmentalists as the debate between development and protection is played out in a number of legal arenas. This course examines the interplay between municipalities and the environment, and the increasing importance of legal regulation in this area. The course is divided into three parts. The first two examine current environmental issues relating to the role of municipalities as regulators of the environment and as owners and operators of infrastructure and facilities. The third part of the course considers the issues of concurrency and paramountcy as they affect municipalities and examines the ways of initially defining municipal jurisdiction and the various principles of conflict resolution.

Indigenous Communities and Resource Development Open Accordion

Credits: 3.0

This course explores the intersection between Aboriginal communities and natural resource development. It will focus on the legal and policy responses to issues such as the duty to consult and economic development.

International Investment Law and Dispute Resolution in the Energy Sector Open Accordion

Credits: 6.0

The world is facing an economic energy revolution. One of consequences of climate change is the increase on the use of different energy sources (i.e. solar, hydro, wind, nuclear, fossil fuels, etc), yet there is a small number of players in the Energy industry. Energy projects often require public-private long term partnerships; often surrounded by uncertainty and political instability brought about by nationalisations, particularly in North Africa, the Gulf States and parts of Latin America. In Europe, the are some mixed signals about the present and the future of the energy industry; while there are serious decarbonization targets; foreign investments have been compromised in lieu of increasing the use of greener energy sources. Therefore, during the life of an energy project it is quite likely that an dispute will arise and energy companies are reluctant to bring claims in ‘foreign courts’. International arbitration is the place for disputes to be resolved before an independent and neutral arbitral tribunal. This module provides students the understanding of particular commercial and investment issues of disputes in the energy sector. It also combines theoretical critical thinking about fundamental aspects of the dispute resolution process, with practical insights and hands-on case studies of some of the most important energy arbitration cases.

International Transportation Law Open Accordion

Credits: 3.0

This course will introduce the legal framework of the international carriage of goods by sea, road, rail, air and multimodal transportation and also focus on the importance of container transportation in global trade. During the course, we will analyze the regimes relevant to unimodal and multimodal carriage and the legal terminology for carrier, shipper, freight forwarder, contractual rights and duties. The course will also explore the cybersecurity of sea transportation, discuss the key international transport conventions, and examine the standardized documents, contracts, and conditions within the multimodal context.

Mining Law Open Accordion

Credits: 3.0

This course will provide an introduction to mining law in Canada. This course will examine the mining industry and the legal implication of the different stages of the mining cycle. The purpose of the course is to provide students with an understanding of the multi-disciplinary nature of mineral resource and exploration and development.

Power Purchase Agreements Open Accordion

Credits: 3.0

A power purchase agreement (PPA) is a long-terms contract for the supply of electricity between an electricity generator (gas, hydro, solar, wind, biofuel, nuclear) or other capacity providers (demand response and storage) and an electricity consumer or a central buyer on behalf of a group of electricity consumers. Students will gain an understanding of why PPAs exist, how PPAs are used by governments to implement policy objectives, how private parties use PPAs to supplement electricity markets, the allocation of risk between generators and consumers, key PPA terms and conditions, and how such terms vary by technology. This course is structured as an examination of the life-cycle of a PPA beginning with identifying the need for a power project, the assessment and procurement of generation resources, obtaining approvals and permitting, obtaining financing, constructing the facility, operating the project, and ending with the expiry or termination of the PPA. This course focuses primarily on how PPAs are used in the Ontario electricity market, but we also refer to markets in other jurisdictions for comparison purposes.

Public Utility Law` Open Accordion

Credits: 6.0

This course addresses the role of public utility regulators with an emphasis on the role of the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) in regulating electricity and gas utilities. The course will also focus on the development of North American and international models. More specifically, the course will address the regulation of rates charged by “natural monopoly” utilities including: the concept of just and reasonable rates; the principles of cost of service rate making; the components of a utility’s revenue requirement; regulating quality of service; regulating publicly owned utilities; and alternatives to traditional cost of service rate making. Additionally, the course will address the role of regulators in awarding franchise rights to serve particular communities, and the role of regulators in regulating competitive aspects of the electricity and gas sectors from the perspective of consumer protection and the perspective of encouraging competition. The regulatory process will also be discussed with an emphasis on a real world example of an OEB case.

Regulatory Theory Open Accordion

Credits: 6.0

This course addresses two basic questions: What is regulation; and why do we do it? Both of these questions will be critically analysed from three perspectives: legal, economic and political. From the legal lens, we will examine regulators as a creature of statute, exercising executive (not judicial) authority; the process of regulatory decision making; adjudication and policy making (rules and codes); and judicial oversight of and deference towards regulatory bodies. From the economic perspective, we will focus on market failure as the need for and extent of regulation; regulation as a form of public finance; and Regulatory agencies and the “capture” theory. From the political perspective, we will hone in on the challenge of defining regulation and its forms; the creation of the “regulatory state”; and the creation and oversight of quasi-independent agencies and their policy instruments.

The Law and Economics of Electricity Markets Open Accordion

Credits: 3.0

This course will examine the law and economics of electricity markets and the institutions that oversee these markets, with particular focus on the deregulated markets in Ontario and Alberta. The design and regulation of electricity markets have continued to evolve since initial electricity restructuring in 1998. The course will examine the regulatory, policy and technological factors that shaped the initial design of deregulated electricity markets and how they worked; some of the challenges that emerged with the initial designs and the changes made to address those challenges; and how the markets have continued to develop and evolve with the introduction of new environmental policies and technologies. The course will also explore pending market redesigns and the possibilities for the energy market of the future.

Transportation in Canada Open Accordion

Credits: 3.0

This course addresses the challenges and opportunities associated with the development of transportation systems in a Canadian context.  The course will consider three areas – first, the role of transportation infrastructure in Canada’s social, economic and environmental fabric, second, the various models for the governance and regulation of transportation infrastructure – nationally, provincially, regionally and locally, and third, the key challenges in delivering transportation infrastructure in the contemporary Canadian context, including the planning, delivery and management of transportation infrastructure in a financially and environmentally sustainable fashion.  The course will conclude with a discussion on new paradigms for the delivery of transportation infrastructure, including taking a multi-disciplinary approach, transportation in a regional and multi-regional setting, climate change and adaptation, and connections between land use and transportation.  Alternative delivery models for transportation infrastructure will also be considered.

Urban Infrastructure Planning & Regulation Open Accordion

Credits: 6.0

The focus of this course will be to examine the growing interest in integrated infrastructure planning and solutions. This interest is being driven by various factors including concerns about environmental sustainability, infrastructure cost containment, and agricultural land protection. In order to understand and properly assess this trend, a firm understanding of current practices in infrastructure planning and regulation is necessary. The course will cover the following topics: (1) Land use planning and regulation: what is the scope of land use planning in Ontario? (2) Water planning and regulation: how are our drinking water systems planned and by whom? (3) Urban transportation planning and regulation: how is the urban transportation system planned and by whom? (4) The new paradigm of integration: what do we mean by integration of infrastructure? What are we trying to achieve through integration; what has already been achieved in terms of integration in Ontario? (5) Is regulatory integration feasible? What are the respective roles of OEB, OMB, EAs? (6) Case studies.

Research Requirement

The research requirement can be fulfilled through one of the following three options. Most students elect to fulfill the requirement through option 3:

1. A Major Research Paper (70 pages, 6 Credits)
2. An Independent Significant Research Paper (30 pages, 3 Credits)
3. A Significant Research Paper (30 pages) completed as the means of assessment for one of the courses within the specialization.

What to Expect

After accepting your offer of admission, you’ll receive information about course schedules. Many of the courses in the Energy & Infrastructure Law specialization are scheduled as weekly evening courses (typically in 7-10 p.m. sessions). However, you will encounter intensive courses as well (typically Thursday evening, all-day Friday and all-day Saturday).

In your first term, you may be assigned a required introductory course as a condition of admission. These courses count toward your degree. Students without a JD/LLB are required to complete Introduction to Graduate Legal Studies (note: we encourage students to take this course before beginning their LLM program).

Application Dates

Admission requirements

The Energy and Infrastructure specialization accepts new students twice each calendar year, in the Fall term and the Winter term.

Fall 2026

Part-Time Keep me informedApply Now

Application Deadlines:

International Applicants are Encouraged to Apply by: January 15, 2026

Final Deadline: May 1, 2026

Winter 2027

Part-Time Keep me informed

Applications Not Currently Open

Applications will open on February 01, 2026

Admission RequirementsHow to ApplyWatch the Information Session

Faculty

Program director

Bruce McCuaig

Julia McNally

George Vegh

Instructors include

Jim Whitestone

Katherine Sparkes

Richard King

See full faculty list

Tuition and Fees

Part-time students pay in six installments over six active terms.

You will be billed an installment for each term in which you enroll in courses. If you complete the program in fewer than six terms, you’ll be billed your remaining installment(s) at the end of your program. If you need more than six terms to complete your credits, extra term fees will apply.

Please note that the tuition/fees displayed here are subject to change, and may vary depending on your entry term.

Domestic (Ontario)

$3,800.79per term for 6 terms

$22,804.74total

Domestic (Out of Province)

$3,990.83per term for 6 terms

$23,944.98total

International Definition

$8,828.66per term for 6 terms

$52,971.96total

Students are also subject to supplementary fees including health benefits. Find out more about supplementary fees here.

See Full Fee InformationSee Financial Assistance Options

Admission Requirements

Admission to Professional LLM specializations is competitive. At OsgoodePD, we can help you navigate the process. The Admissions Committee reviews each applicant’s completed file and takes into consideration criteria such as academic background, professional work experience, and whether the program fits your stated goals. The information below represents the minimum requirements for admission consideration to our graduate degree programs – meeting these criteria does not guarantee admission.

JD/LLB degree or undergraduate degree (a graduate degree is an asset to non-legal professionals) 

Overall B (75%) average (or equivalent) 

Professional work experience (JD/LLB graduates require at least 2 years, while non-legal professionals require at least 5 years of related senior-level experience) 

Acceptable English language proficiency (see requirements) 

Apply now

How to Apply

Create Your OsgoodePD Applicant Profile

Create an applicant profile in our online application portal. This portal allows us to gather your information, transcripts, and other documents electronically. You will receive an email with directions outlining how to create a new password for your application, along with a link to access the application.

Upload Application Documents

The following documents are required:

• Resume/CV
• Writing Sample
• Contact Information for Two References
• Transcripts
• Official Proof of Language Proficiency (if applicable)

For more information, see our Application Documents to Upload section.

Pay and Submit

Once your application is completed, you will be required to pay a non-refundable $140 CAD application fee.

Wait for Review

Timelines for decisions vary by program, but we will be in touch if we have questions about your application or need more information.

Start Application More on the application process

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I pursue this program as an international student? Open Accordion

International students must research their immigration options, as it can be difficult to obtain a Visa/Study Permit for a part-time degree. While there is the option to remain in your home country and undertake a number of our part-time specializations via virtual conferencing, international students will need to be in a conducive time zone in order to participate. 

Yes No What is the time commitment? Open Accordion

Part-time students undertake 6 credits per term, which generally equates to 36 hours of in-class participation. We encourage students to budget one hour for every hour that they are in class for additional reading or coursework. So, that equates to 72 hours per term. 

Yes No I’ve never taken legal education courses before. Is that going to be a problem? Open Accordion

No. All students admitted without a JD/LLB are required to take our Introduction to Graduate Legal Studies course. This will provide them with the foundation necessary to be successful in the LLM. 

Yes No

Contact Us

Have questions? We’re here to help! Click here to get in touch.