A rising interdependence among the members of international society and of global civil society has led to an increasing demand for governance without government. The new regulatory mode is characterized as a 'soft law' framework. The contributors to this book define soft law in terms of legally non-binding rules, such as recommendations, codes of conduct and declarations, though they acknowledge the difficulty sometimes faced in differentiating between hard and soft law, whose boundaries are, in practice, often blurred. Focussing largely on the European experience, the book shows how soft law in the EU has become an important regulatory tool in traditional policy areas, like state aid, and in new policy areas, especially within EU's employment policy. It also extends the analysis to the international stage, arguing that international institutions, such as the OECD, the UN, the IMF and the World Bank, have for decades used soft law as a means, indeed their only means, of regulating international agreements. Comparisons between the two arenas are then drawn and indicate very different roles for soft law. This book will appeal to scholars of European law and politics as well as those involved with or interested in the policy implications of this mode of governance.

The Changing Landscape of Global Financial Governance and the Role of Soft Law provides interdisciplinary perspectives on the changing landscape of global financial governance by exploring the impact and role of soft law, directly or as a precursor of hard law, pertaining to financial governance. Since the shaping of financial governance impacts national, regional and global levels of regulation, different views and arguments contribute to the ongoing discussions about financial regulation. Against this background, this book brings together perspectives of economists and lawyers who have not rallied to one or the other popular call for more regulation as a panacea for the prevention of future global financial crises, calls which have all but drowned out more nuanced scientific debates. Instead, their analysis of aspects of remedial regulatory policy prescriptions already made or proposed demonstrates that carefully designed soft law can be deployed as a valuable method or tool of mediation between the unrestrained autonomy of dysfunctional markets and overzealously crafted hard law.

This timely book explores pertinent questions around the legitimacy and effectiveness of EU agencies’ soft law, with a particular focus on the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). It examines the variety of ESMA’s existing and newly granted soft law-making powers, which were intended to deal with the lack of effectiveness of its predecessor but are now called into question due to the ‘hard’ effect of these soft laws.

Swiss citizens approve of their government and the way democracy is practiced; they trust the authorities and are satisfied with the range of services Swiss governments provide. This is quite unusual when compared to other countries. This open access book provides insight into the organization and the functioning of the Swiss state. It claims that, beyond politics, institutions and public administration, there are other factors which make a country successful. The authors argue that Switzerland is an interesting case, from a theoretical, scientific and a more practice-oriented perspective. While confronted with the same challenges as other countries, Switzerland offers different solutions, some of which work astonishingly well.

Around the world, the role of national regulation is often hotly debated. This book takes as its starting point the fact that legislatures and regulators are criticized for overregulation and for producing poor-quality regulation which ignores input from citizens and stifles private initiative. This situation has enhanced the role of non-state law, in forms such as self-regulation and soft law. In this book, international scholars in various fields of law, as well as socio-legal studies, address the question to what extent non-state law currently influences state regulation, and what the consequences of non-state law are likely to be for state regulation. Drawing lessons for the state legislature and state regulators, this innovative book will be of great interest to academic researchers and post graduate students in the fields of law, regulation, legal sociology, legal theory, law and economics, and environmental law. It will also be of interest to policy makers and regulators those working at ministries and government departments drafting legislation.

An important read for academics and policy-makers alike, Hard Choices, Soft Law asserts that voluntary standards, or 'soft' law, are an important supplement to international law in a number of areas. This key work firstly outlines the approach taken to combining soft and hard law and trade, environment and labour values in the WTO and NAFTA, and in the prospective Millennium Round. Then, using the forestry sector - a realm where formal international law remains largely absent - the book provides a detailed examination of the role of soft law in action. It demonstrates how soft and hard law can be combined to promote trade, environmental and social cohesion, in ways that also permit sustainable development. The book presents a wealth of knowledge from a range of contributors familiar with the work of the G7/G8, the OECD, the Biodiversity Convention and the Codex Alimentarius.

"Systematically discusses two aspects of soft law research. The first is to construct a theoretical system to interpret soft law governance phenomena; the second is to resolve the issue of 'soft law is also law (in a legal regime)' and redefine the traditional concept of 'law'"--Publisher.