Explaining the Practical Purchase of Soft Law: Competing and Complementary Behavioral Hypotheses

Why do international and domestic legal actors employ and even apply international soft law sources, although these sources are not legally binding? In this chapter, after surveying different ways in which soft law is employed and applied in international and domestic courts, we offer several rational choice and behavioral hypotheses regarding the influence of soft law. These hypotheses are examined in relation to different types of soft law instruments and different actors who apply and create soft law. We conclude with a brief discussion of the dialectic relationship between soft law making and the influence of soft law.

Keywords: Soft Law, International Courts, Behavioral Economics, Anchoring, Sources

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Broude, Tomer and Shereshevsky, Yahli, Explaining the Practical Purchase of Soft Law: Competing and Complementary Behavioral Hypotheses (December 13, 2017). Forthcoming, International Law as Behavior (Harlan Grant Cohen and Timothy Meyer, eds.), Cambridge University Press, 2018, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Legal Research Paper 18-7, Hebrew University of Jerusalem International Law Forum Working Series 09-17, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3087179 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3087179