Soft Law

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines how domestic courts give recognition, through their judicial reasoning, to soft law. The concept of soft law gives recognition to international normative standards which do not fall under the recognized sources of international law (conventions, custom, and the general principles of law). Within the context of the Oxford Reports on International Law in Domestic Courts (ILDC), soft law encompasses a range of standards which states consider that they ought to abide by and yet which may not fall under the three sources of international law. This chapter reviews a number of domestic court decisions selected primarily from the ILDC) to identify the kind of soft-law instruments invoked by domestic courts in their judicial reasoning, namely instruments of treaty monitoring bodies, instruments of a ‘conference of parties’, instruments of international organizations, and instruments adopted by inter-governmental forums.