Informal International Lawmaking

Informal international lawmaking is a term used to describe the process by which new international legal norms are created outside of the normal fora for negotiation. The outcomes of these processes are not codified in treaties or conventions and thus remain non-binding. They are also characterized by the involvement of non-traditional actors, such as regulators and agencies. This book critically assesses the concept of informal international lawmaking, its legal nature, and impact at the national and international level. It examines whether it is on the rise, as is often claimed, and if so, what the implications of this are. It addresses what actors are involved in its creation, the processes utilized, and the informal output produced.

The book frames informal international lawmaking around three axes: output informality (novel types of norms), process informality (norm-making in networks outside international organizations), and actor informality (the involvement of public agencies and regulators, private actors, and international organizations). Fundamentally, the book is concerned with whether this informality causes problems in terms of keeping transnational lawmaking accountable. By empirically analysing domestic processes of norm elaboration and implementation, the book addresses the key question of how to benefit from the effectiveness of informal international lawmaking without jeopardizing the accountability necessary in the process of making law.

Joost Pauwelyn is Professor of International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. He is also Co-Director of the Centre for Trade and Economic Integration (CTEI) and Senior Advisor with the law firm of King & Spalding LLP.


Ramses A. Wessel is Professor of the Law of the European Union and other International Organizations and Co-Director of the Centre for European Studies, University of Twente, the Netherlands. He is Senior Research Fellow of the University's Institute for Innovation and Governance Studies (IGS). His additional functions include: Member of the standing Governmental Advisory Committee on Issues of Public International Law (CAVV); Member of the Governing Board of the Centre for the Law of EU External Relations (CLEER) in The Hague; Editor-in-Chief and founder of the International Organizations Law Review; Editor-in-Chief of the Dutch journal and yearbook on peace and security, Vrede en Veiligheid; and member of the Editorial Board of the Netherlands Yearbook of International Law and the Internationale Spectator.

Jan Wouters is Professor of International Law and International Organizations, Jean Monnet Chair Ad Personam EU and Global Governance, and Director of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and Institute for International Law at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven). He studied law and philosophy in Antwerp and at Yale University (LL.M., 1990), was a Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School and obtained his PhD at the University of Leuven (1996). Jan Wouters is Visiting Professor at the College of Europe and practises law as Of Counsel at Linklaters. He is Member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Arts. Professor Wouters taught at the Universities of Antwerp and Maastricht, was Visiting Professor at Liege and Kyushu University and Referendaire at the European Court of Justice (1991-1994). He is Editor of International Encyclopedia of Intergovernmental Organizations and Vice-Director of Revue belge de droit international.