Evolution Of Binding Force Of International Soft Law

With the trend of globalization and emergence of the global governance philosophy, international soft law comes into being. International soft law is the code of conducts that generally considered to be not legally binding but will have practical effect and is norm concluded beyond the geographical scope of the jurisdiction of a state which is not technically legal in terms of form and effectiveness. And thus international law scholars called it a prelude or forerunner of international legislation, norm or prototype before the legal stage. Despite the different wording of these statements, they are intended to illustrate that international soft law is non-binding. Therefore, only becoming hard law can soft law play any legal effect to international society. Starting from the concept of international soft law and binding force, we can draw conclusions useful to the academic circle by analyzing concerned questions from static and dynamic perspectives.The use of context analysis, comparative analysis and normative analysis provides our analysis reliable methodological basis. Firstly, we find the connotation and the extension of international soft law by the methods of context analysis and comparative analysis. The connotation is the definition of international soft law which has been introduced before while the extension of which is the form and characteristics of international soft law. Secondly, with context analysis and comparative analysis, comparisons are made between theories of international scholars and conclusion is drawn that international soft law has no binding force. Finally, the analysis of the international soft laws existing in the fields of international environment, international human rights and international economy allows us to find the causes and evolution path of their emergence as international soft laws.To argue whether international law has binding force or not by comparing theories among various schools has rarely been done by other scholars. This kind of methodological innovation shows a different perspective of analyzing this question, and will lay the theoretical foundation for the future in-depth study.