Unconventional Lawmaking in the Offshore Energy Sector: Flexibilities and Weaknesses of the International Legal Framework

The offshore energy sector is regulated by a plethora of international instruments at the global and regional levels. There is no framework convention, nor is there one competent international organization that shapes and monitors its coherent development. Moreover, many of the applicable instruments are the outcome of unconventional lawmaking processes, and have a non-binding nature. The result is a fragmented and potentially weak legal framework. The present chapter recognizes the role of unconventional lawmaking processes in guaranteeing flexibility, and the necessary timeliness of some regulatory efforts, but it also submits that unconventional lawmaking contributes to the weaknesses and incoherencies of the legal framework, which already suffers from a sectoral and geographical fragmentation. This chapter also submits that it is, at times, difficult to distinguish unconventional lawmaking in the offshore energy sector from conventional law interpretation.