ABSTRACT
Since the 1990s, there has been a highly visible trend towards managing transborder problems by global rules. These emerging regimes of ‘global regulation’ (Braithwaite and Drahos 2000) have transformed the way in which rule-making at the global level works. One of the major changes identified is a trend towards ‘legalization’ (Abbott et al. 2000). There has developed a rich array of ‘law-like’ arrangements in the international system, which varies according to the degree of bindingness of the rules as well as the type of actors involved and the role they play in setting and enforcing those rules (Brütsch and Lehmkuhl in this volume). Furthermore, these rules are now increasingly enforced by bodies that come close to autonomous international courts, for example the dispute settlement system of the WTO. However, this process of ‘legalization’ is characteristic only of parts of global rule-making. Global regulators also increasingly resort to voluntary rules, soft law, or standards in order to tackle public policy problems. So far, this form of global regulation has received less attention than legalized global rule. The present chapter seeks to redress this imbalance.
