Soft Law in Governance and Regulation: An Interdisciplinary Analysis - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1843765713 ISBN 13: 9781843765714

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, 2004

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Edited by Ulrika Mörth, Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science, Stockholm University, Sweden

Edition details

• Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1843765713
• ISBN 13: 9781843765714
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240
• Editor: Mörth Ulrika