Soft law and international relations : the arctic, outer space, and climate change ...

• Main Author: Nadarajah, Hema
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2020
• Subjects: Arctic; Climate change
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0394919; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0394919

Soft law has been observed to be increasing within the global system, particularly in regions and issue-areas where scientific and technological knowledge has been substantively integrated into decision-making and governance. The often-used assumption for the prevalence of such instruments has been the uncertainty of scientific knowledge. This dissertation examines this assumption and takes the analysis further by examining contemporary changes to the international system, such as the number and diversity of state and non-state actors as well as their relative influence, through a close examination of three cases — the Arctic, Outer Space, and Climate Change. This dissertation makes three contributions. Firstly, it proposes that soft law instruments can be binding or non-binding. Binding soft law instruments, called “soft treaties”, are made up of permissive, ambiguous, and/or redundant obligations. Secondly, this dissertation empirically establishes that soft law instruments are becoming more prevalent, as ...