Research Handbook on Soft Law / / Mariolina Eliantonio, Emilia Korkea-aho, and Ulrika Mörth, editors.

• Superior document: Research Handbooks in Law and Politics Series
• TeilnehmendeR: Eliantonio, Mariolina,; Korkea-aho, Emilia,; Mörth, Ulrika,; Edward Elgar Publishing,
• Place / Publishing House: Northampton : : Edward Elgar Publishing,, 2023.
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Edition: First edition.
• Language: English
• Series: Research handbooks in law and politics.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (470 pages)
• Notes: Includes index.

"This 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"-- Provided by publisher.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Copyright -- Contents -- Tables -- Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction to Research Handbook on Soft Law -- PART I DEFINITIONS, HISTORY AND CONTEXT -- 1. Bamboo, or governance through soft law: hybridity, legitimacy, and sustainability -- 2. Soft law: an historical introduction -- 3. The definition of soft law -- 4. An economic analysis of soft law as a regulatory tool -- 5. Anthropology and soft law -- 6. Democracy and soft law -- PART II DISCIPLINES, REGIMES AND AUTHORITY -- 7. Soft law in European public law -- 8. Better regulation as soft law -- 9. Rules and responsibilities: business and social norms in transnational governance -- 10. Soft law, technical standards and European private law -- 11. Soft authority in global governance -- 12. International standards and the dilution of responsibility -- PART III ACTORS, INSTITUTIONS AND MAKING OF SOFT LAW -- 13. Soft law and courts: saviours or saboteurs of the rule of (soft) law? -- 14. EU economic governance, agencies and soft law: an accountability challenge for the courts? -- 15. Fictions and fuzziness: soft law rule-making among the EU's decentralized agencies -- 16. Administrative guidance in the United States: the moral and political stakes of non-binding law -- 17. Soft law making at the European Commission: not much of a one-institution show -- 18. Beyond norm entrepreneurs: civil society and the framing of the 'legal' through soft law -- 19. The Open Method of Coordination (OMC): a hybrid tool of political leverage in the making -- 20. Studying the EU soft law cycle: the role of domestic factors -- PART IV CRISES, CHALLENGES AND CHANCES -- 21. Fighting a hard battle with a soft weapon: is international climate change law softening? -- 22. Soft law in city regulation and governance -- 23. Soft law and citizenship regimes.

24. Soft law: booster or brake for the promotion of gender equality in the EU? -- 25. Soft law and the rule of law crisis -- 26. The role of soft law in the context of the financial crisis -- 27. Soft law governance in the field of AI: a European perspective -- Index.