Abstract
Abstract The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is the ‘competent international organization’ mandated to create a regulatory framework for all aspects of international shipping. The lawmaking process within the IMO is undertaken by member states, with the technical and expert assistance of national and international organizations, civil societies, and shipping industries. The regulations adopted under the auspices of the IMO are a mixture of binding conventions and protocols, and non-binding codes and recommendations. This chapter discusses the lawmaking process at the IMO in relation to the compliance mechanism that evolved through various stages of informal law, and gradually consolidated into formal law. It explores the rationale and advantages of informal law in the context of international shipping regulations, discusses the role of different stakeholders at play in the informal lawmaking process, and analyses the interaction between informal lawmaking and formal treaty law developed under the auspices of the IMO.
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