Professional Documents
Culture Documents
"Soft Law" Through The Prism of The WTO
"Soft Law" Through The Prism of The WTO
"Soft Law" Through The Prism of The WTO
Volume 6 Issue 2, January-February 2022 Available Online: www.ijtsrd.com e-ISSN: 2456 – 6470
@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD49217 | Volume – 6 | Issue – 2 | Jan-Feb 2022 Page 330
International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
obligations. Due to its non-binding nature, it is and interpretation process, providing the basis for
difficult to assess at what level States are fulfilling subsequent treaty texts and other forms of rules, or
their obligations. Based on this, one can say that the simply as a means of building consensus before rules
increasing use of "soft law" can destabilize the entire are developed.
international normative system and turn it into an Many of these instruments and informal “soft law”
instrument that can no longer serve its goals. arrangements are part of WTO membership practice,
It should be noted that, due to its ambiguous nature, which is sometimes based on a mixture of specific
soft law leaves room for broader interpretation by WTO rules and decades of practice dating back to the
states, and this can sometimes go beyond the letter of period of the General Agreement on Tariffs and
the law. Trade. It may also find expression in secondary or
Given the fact that finance and international trade are subsidiary rules for the fulfillment of WTO
a very dynamic and rapidly changing environment, obligations, as is the case with some decisions of
accordingly, the legal mechanisms that are designed councils or committees. These secondary rules may,
to solve emerging problems must be flexible and in turn, give rise to other soft law norms.
quickly adaptable to new conditions. Soft law The main reason for the use of soft law in the WTO
mechanisms appear to be beneficial from this point of legal order is that soft law fulfills all the functions
view, as they are easy to adopt, change or even that are usually attributed to it also in other areas of
abandon, and provide flexibility in implementation. general international law, namely flexibility,
However, I believe that there should be some basic adaptability, speed and simplicity.
and minimum legal and regulatory framework set by Other reasons for using soft law in the WTO are that
strong legislation. This minimum legal framework it has proven particularly useful when the issue is
should serve as the basis upon which other non- politically sensitive, when there is widespread
mandatory principles of best practice should be disagreement or lack of coordination among WTO
established. members, when the issue is highly contentious, or
Considering “soft law” in the context of the WTO, a when cooperation contributes to conflicts. Such
distinction can be made between primary and conflicts manifest themselves most acutely when the
secondary “soft law” in general international law. interests of members of one group conflict with the
Primary “soft law” refers to those normative texts that interests of another, potentially more influential
are not adopted in the form of a treaty and are group, that is, the rest of the members, in an attempt
addressed to the international community as a whole, to change the terms of cooperation in their favor.
or to the entire membership of the organization. So, Therefore, they put forward the argument that "hard"
for example, the declaration adopted at the end of one and "soft" law can act not only as a complement or
of the ministerial conferences of the organization is alternative, but also as antagonists to each other, and
the primary “soft law” for the governments of the that the problem of conflicts related to the distribution
WTO member countries. of interests was underestimated in determining the
results of negotiations and other forms of
Secondary soft law consists of recommendations and international cooperation. Thus, to soften the blow to
general comments from international oversight a "hard" contractual obligation, soft law instruments
bodies, jurisprudence and resolutions of political make enforcement problematic but reduce distributive
bodies of international organizations applying conflicts in negotiations over the exact terms of
primary rules. cooperation.
In the context of the WTO, there are other forms of Speaking about the effectiveness of soft law, we can
“soft law”, including in the form of recommendations say that it does not have an instant impact, which
adopted by members of one of the boards or complicates its existence, but it is still able to
committees, guidance from management, reports, positively influence specific conflict situations over
statements, programs of action, etc. They may also time, which requires constant monitoring and
include informal agreements in the management of evaluation. The presence of “soft law” in the WTO
the contractual the WTO regime, such as informal makes this organization attractive for participation
meetings, informal sessions and informal documents and interesting, from the point of view of research,
for discussion among members. Informal for further deepening knowledge and predicting
arrangements can be used for a number of reasons, trends in modern international lawmaking in order to
such as: strengthening members' obligations under the promote state interests and increase the role of the
agreements, reaffirming a common understanding of WTO.
the WTO's core treaty obligations through a drafting
@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD49217 | Volume – 6 | Issue – 2 | Jan-Feb 2022 Page 331