The difficulty with enabling the House of Representatives to amend the powers of the internationally recognized NOC in Tripoli is that the House of Representatives has established its own NOC in Benghazi and neither recognizes the Presidential Council nor the LPA which gives legitimacy to the Presidential Council.
Simply, the legal difficulties lie with the existence of different governing bodies, each of whom claims to be the legitimate representatives of Libya.
Practical Issues with Decree 270/2017
At present, issuing Decree 270/2017 shall create more confusion and uncertainties in the oil & gas industry. Libya has three organs claiming to be the legitimate representative government of Libya and two NOCs, each of which claims to govern the oil industry. However, the international community only recognizes the Presidential Council, the Government of National Accord, and the NOC headquartered in Tripoli as legitimate governing bodies.
In summary, issuing Decree 270/2017 is unnecessary and illegal based on constitutional law since a law issued by a legislative body could not be amended through the issuance of a decree by the executive branch.
Dr. Mohamed Karbal is a New York lawyer and founder of Karbal & Co, a full-service international law firm with offices in Libya and Dubai that serve the needs of businesses and governments of Libya and the United Arab Emirates.
[1] (http://alwasat.ly/ar/news/libya/137099/).
