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Soft Law bietet die Möglichkeit der agilen und flexiblen Regulierung, die sich gerade an die dynamische digitale Entwicklung anpassen kann. Allerdings gilt Soft Law durch seine unverbindliche Natur als wenig effektiv. Mit dem Digital Services Act (DSA) beschreitet die EU jedoch einen unkonventionellen Weg, indem sie Hard Law und Soft Law in – zumindest aus dogmatischer Perspektive – eigentümlicher Weise miteinander verbindet. Der DSA ist selbst eine rechtsverbindliche EU-Verordnung, welche jedoch Soft Law Instrumente vorsieht und sogar Vorschriften zu ihrer rechtlichen Durchsetzung enthält. Derlei Regelungstechniken sind im Unionsrecht zwar durchaus bekannt, doch stellen sie zumindest der öffentlichen Wahrnehmung des DSA als 'Verfassung des Internets' in Frage. Wie weitreichend kann eine solche Verfassung sein, die wesentliche Fragen an (exekutiv initiiertes, privat gesetztes) Soft Law auslagert?

Soft law offers the possibility of agile and flexible regulation that can adapt to dynamic digital developments. However, due to its non-binding nature, soft law is not considered to be very effective. With the Digital Services Act (DSA), however, the EU is taking an - at least from a legal dogmatic perspective - unconventional approach by combining hard and soft law in a unique way. The DSA itself is a legally binding EU regulation, but it provides for soft law instruments and even contains provisions for their legal enforcement. Although such regulatory techniques are well known in EU law, they at least call into question the public perception of the DSA as the 'constitution of the internet'. How far-reaching can such a constitution be that outsources essential issues to (executive-initiated, privately set) soft law?

Part I: lawmaking in EC law -- Setting the scene -- Sources of EC law and EC legislation -- Guiding principles for legislation -- Part II: Community soft law instruments -- Introduction to the concept of soft law in EC law -- Categories and functions of soft law -- Part III: legal issues of Community soft law -- Legally binding force -- The competence to adopt soft law -- Indirect legal effects for the legislature -- Indirect legal effects for the judiciary -- Indirect legal effects for the executive -- Part IV: summary, conclusions and recommendations -- The use of Community soft law evaluated.

This article examines one of the most important trends in international legal governance since the end of the Second World War: the rise of "soft law," or legally non-binding instruments. Scholars studying the design of international agreements have long puzzled over why states use soft law. The decision to make an agreement or obligation legally binding is within the control of the states negotiating the content of the legal obligations. Basic contract theory predicts that parties to a contract would want their agreement to be as credible as possible, to ensure optimal incentives to perform. It is therefore odd that states routinely enter into agreements establishing international rules and regulatory standards in a wide range of subject areas, from banking to arms control to the environmental protection, that are not legally binding. I begin by proposing a new definition of soft law. Although previous definitions have often distinguished soft law from hard law on the basis that only the latter is legally binding, no one has explained what distinguishes soft law from purely political arrangements. By contrast, this article defines soft law as those obligations that, while not legally binding themselves, are given some legal effect through separate legal instruments. The Nuclear Suppliers Group Guidelines, for example, are not legally binding on states, but arguably give content to legally binding obligations in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and are also given domestic legal effect by statute and regulation. This new definition helps us understand what is "legal" about soft law, while at the same time allowing us to analyze differences between hard and soft law. I then argue that states use soft law as a way to delegate authority over the content of legal rules and regulations to states that possess a particularly strong interest in those rules. Making an agreement non-binding lowers the penalty associated with deviating from existing legal rules, and thus encourages states with a significant interest in ...

Part I: lawmaking in EC law -- Setting the scene -- Sources of EC law and EC legislation -- Guiding principles for legislation -- Part II: Community soft law instruments -- Introduction to the concept of soft law in EC law -- Categories and functions of soft law -- Part III: legal issues of Community soft law -- Legally binding force -- The competence to adopt soft law -- Indirect legal effects for the legislature -- Indirect legal effects for the judiciary -- Indirect legal effects for the executive -- Part IV: summary, conclusions and recommendations -- The use of Community soft law evaluated.

The purpose of the article is to assess how the provisions resulting from international programmatic norms in the field of human genetic data are implemented. The presented study, adopting the perspective of institutional rationalism extended to the paradigm of legalism, considers examples of the implementation of these standards in selected legal systems – Germany, the United States of America and France. The selection of the research paradigm is preceded by a theoretical introduction, which presents three ways of conceptualizing the notion of soft law in the legal sciences. Following an outline of this legal regime in positivism, and the theories of rationalization and constructivism, the author focuses on the provisions of the International Declaration on Human Genetic Data of 16 October, 2003, which are compared with the legislative initiatives of Germany, the United States of America and France, to show the influence that the choices of states has on selection of the implemented standards and how they are implemented.

Nach Kreta, Rom, Wien, Göttingen Sevilla und Budapest, den Austragungsorten der bisherigen Kongresse, hat die Societas Iuris Publici Europaei (SIPE) ihren Siebten Kongress vom 10. bis 12. Juni 2010 in Straßburg mit dem Thema "Das Soft Law der Europäischen Organisationen" veranstaltet. Bekanntlich hat zwar das soft law seinen Ursprung im internationalen Bereich bzw. im Völkerrecht, in dem diese Bezeichnung für nicht formal rechtsverbindliche Übereinkünfte, Absichtserklärungen oder Leitlinien verwendet wird, doch hat es aber auch Eingang in das Europarecht gefunden. Mit seiner bereits umstrittenen Begriffsbestimmung, seiner ebenfalls umstrittenen Rechtsnatur und Bindungswirkung sowie seiner Gegenüberstellung zum hard law ist inzwischen das soft law ein im europäischen Rechtsraum für die Juristen offenes Diskussionsthema. Die vielschichtigen und komplizierten Fragen seiner Geltung und Tragweite im Bereich der europäischen Organisationen, d.h. derjenigen der Europäischen Union und des Europarats, wurden zwei Tage lang in Straßburg von Fachleuten aus Theorie und Praxis lebhaft diskutiert. Die Referate sind zusammen mit den Beiträgen aus dem "Atelier Junger Wissenschaftler", ein Forum auf dem qualifizierte Nachwuchswissenschaftler zu dem Tagungsthema eigene Referate beisteuern und diskutieren, in dem vorliegenden Tagungsband abgedruckt