Description
Book SynopsisThis pioneering Research Handbook provides a comprehensive and in-depth scholarly overview of the field of soft law, exploring the scope of current thinking in the field as well as proposing future pathways for soft law research.
Organized into four broad themes, the Research Handbook offers important and unique insights into the dynamic and complex nature of soft law. The first section delves into the conceptual history and development of soft law. Second, the Handbook explores the disciplinary understandings of soft law, examining how scholars from different fields investigate the topic. The third theme focuses on the public and private actors and institutions involved in soft law-making, providing a detailed analysis of the complex relationships that shape soft law. Finally, the fourth theme explores the role of soft law in addressing major global societal challenges, including among others climate change, gender inequality, and the regulation of artificial intelligence.
This Research Handbook will be a key resource for students and scholars in constitutional and administrative law, public international law, regulation and governance, public administration and policy, and law and politics. Practitioners and policymakers seeking to better understand the role of soft law in domestic and international law, policy and governance will also find this book beneficial.
Trade Review‘This is a terrific collection on a subject of perennial interest, particularly (although not only) for international and European law scholars and practitioners. The editors have assembled a stellar line-up of contributors to address many of the persistent issues which the use and proliferation of soft law raise, including the reasons for its emergence as well as its impact, authority, limitations and future challenges.’ -- Gráinne de Búrca, New York University, US
‘Soft law is at once a welcome addition to the instruments for governing and a challenge to traditional ideas of law and governance. This Research Handbook provides a thorough and thoughtful examination of the nature of soft law and its contributions to governing at the national and transnational levels. It is essential reading for scholars of law, political science, economics and governance.’ -- B. Guy Peters, University of Pittsburgh, US
‘While soft law is increasingly central, its fuzziness – sitting between law and politics; the local and the global; the public and the private – makes it difficult to grasp for academics and practitioners alike. Into this darkness, this Research Handbook shines bright light, examining both soft law’s history and its development across policy fields. For its intellectual depth and empirical rigour, it deserves to be widely read.’ -- Mark Dawson, Hertie School, Germany
‘This Elgar Research Handbook on Soft Law provides critically important, grounded case studies of soft law in action across key policy fields, combined with conceptual and normative analyses for governance going forward, with significant implications for the major challenges that our societies face, from climate change, AI, and financial crises, to social inclusion and the rule of law.’ -- Gregory Shaffer, Georgetown University Law Center, US
Table of ContentsContents: Introduction to Research Handbook on Soft Law 1 PART I DEFINITIONS, HISTORY AND CONTEXT 1 Bamboo, or governance through soft law: hybridity, legitimacy, and sustainability 9 Francis Snyder 2 Soft Law: an historical introduction 30 Nils Jansen 3 The definition of soft law 42 Fabien Terpan 4 An economic analysis of soft law as a regulatory tool 55 Michael Faure and Niels Philipsen 5 Anthropology and soft law 70 Filippo M. Zerilli 6 Democracy and soft law 86 Ulrika Mörth PART II DISCIPLINES, REGIMES AND AUTHORITY 7 Soft law in European public law 100 Bruno De Witte 8 Better regulation as soft law 115 Claudio M. Radaelli and Gaia Taffoni 9 Rules and responsibilities: Business and social norms in transnational governance 131 Boris Holzer 10 Soft law, technical standards and European private law 144 Hans-W. Micklitz 11 Soft authority in global governance 161 Jan Klabbers 12 International standards and the dilution of responsibility 176 Ingrid Gustafsson Nordin and Kristina Tamm Hallström PART III ACTORS, INSTITUTIONS AND MAKING OF SOFT LAW 13 Soft law and courts: saviours or saboteurs of the rule of (soft) law? 190 Mariolina Eliantonio and Emilia Korkea-aho 14 EU economic governance, agencies and soft law: an accountability challenge for the courts? 207 Jacint Jordana and Joan Solanes Mullor 15 Fictions and fuzziness: Soft law rule-making among the EU’s decentralized agencies 223 Steven Vaughan 16 Administrative guidance in the United States 237 Blake Emerson 17 Soft law making at the European Commission: Not much of a one-institution show 252 Oana Stefan 18 Beyond norm entrepreneurs: Civil society and the framing of the ‘legal’ through soft law 271 Rene Urueña and Rafael Tamayo-Álvarez 19 The Open Method of Coordination (OMC): A hybrid tool of political leverage in the making 287 Minna van Gerven and Sabina Stiller 20 Studying the EU soft law cycle: the role of domestic factors 303 Anne Ausfelder, Adam Eick and Miriam Hartlapp PART IV CRISES, CHALLENGES AND CHANCES 21 Fighting a hard battle with a soft weapon: Is international climate change law softening? 320 Kati Kulovesi and María Eugenia Recio 22 Soft law in city regulation and governance 337 Astrid Voorwinden and Sofia Ranchordás 23 Soft law and citizenship regimes 353 Timothy Jacob-Owens and Jo Shaw 24 Soft law: Booster or brake for the promotion of gender equality in the EU? 368 Birte Böök and Linda Senden 25 Soft law and the rule of law crisis 391 Joelle Grogan and Clara van Dam 26 The role of soft law in the context of the financial crisis 407 Alexander H. Türk 27 Soft law governance in the field of AI: A European perspective 423 Frederik Schade and Mikkel Flyverbom Index
