Managerial and Legal Frameworks in Energy Sector Transformation: A Key Area Review

In an era prioritizing sustainability, the energy sector plays a pivotal yet complex role in shaping future development. Its transition is strongly influenced by legal and decision-making frameworks, which require adaptation to rapidly changing technological and market conditions. This article investigates national and international legal structures that regulate and facilitate the transformation toward sustainable energy systems. A Systematic Literature Review, complemented by a Classical Literature Review and bibliometric mapping using VOSviewer, is used to identify and visualize key research areas at the intersection of energy policy, environmental law and managerial decision making. The analysis reveals a fragmented legal landscape structured around six main thematic clusters, covering core energy markets, environmental regulation, comparative legal analyses, efficiency and commerce, digital transformation and energy policy and security. These clusters highlight specific regulatory strengths, such as well-developed sectoral market rules, as well as gaps, including uneven enforcement of environmental norms, limited integration of climate objectives into sectoral regulations and a lag between technological innovation and legal frameworks. Building on these findings, this article introduces the concept of a compensatory model of energy law, which combines preventive, corrective and restorative instruments to distribute the costs and benefits of the energy transition more fairly. This study contributes to the academic and policy debate by clarifying how legal governance and managerial strategies jointly shape the trajectory of the energy sector’s transformation and by outlining directions for future research and regulatory reform.