Whether or not a certain norm is legally binding upon international actors may often depend
on whether or not the instrument which contains the norm is to be regarded as a treaty. In …

From a law-making perspective the term 'soft law'is simply a convenient description for a
variety of non-legally binding instruments used in contemporary international relations by …

International agreements not concluded as treaties and therefore not covered by the Vienna
Convention on the Law of Treaties play an important role in international relations. Often …

My starting point for this discussion of the relationship between treaties and soft law is the
observation that the subtlety of the processes by which contemporary international law can …

We examine why international actors—including states, firms, and activists—seek different
types of legalized arrangements to solve political and substantive problems. We show how …

In his final speech at the Helsinki Conference (CSCE) in 1975, Prime Minister Wilson called
the Final Act of the Conference a “moral commitment”, not an international treaty. Thus, the …

When considering the situation in South West Africa, the International Court of Justice
observed that the League of Nations mandate had" characteristics similar to law-making …

Although the concept of soft law has existed for years, scholars have not reached consensus
on why states use soft law or even whether “soft law” is a coherent analytic category. In part …

Commitment and Compliance is the first book to evaluate the impact of state behavior of
international norms adopted in forms that are not legally binding. The use of suchsoft …

The form and substance of international agreements are intimately linked. This insight,
recently articulated by scholars working at the intersection of international law (IL) and …