Explore The Plight Of Soft Law

The concept of“soft law”is derived from international law, and it firstly meansnon-treaty obligation. Nowadays, the term "soft law" refers to the rules which do nothave any legally binding force but still have some legal effects. Influenced by theweak of administration of country, the rise of public governance, the development ofdeliberative democracy and post modernism, the study of“soft law”heats up. The“soft law”with its own character and effect is different from the“hard law”,whose characters have flexibility and democracy with creation, non-nationalmandatory, non-judicial, non-classes in law rank. It is effective to compensate for theshortcomings of“hard law”, build law authority and reduce social costs. However,“soft law”is a double-edged sword in the rule of law circumstance. Whenpromoting the objectives of the ruled by law,“soft law”has defects which offendagainst the the rule of law. The“soft law”is not brought into legal track, evencondemned. Some scholars regards it as a hinder on the way to reach the rule of law.With the boom of“soft law”phenomenon, the study of“soft law”dilemma didnot catch attention. Without the theoretical support, the practice of rational“softlaw”seems to be more difficult. The irrational“soft law”not only harms the lawauthority, but also provides opportunities to abuse power. What is worse is that theright of people could not be guaranteed. And the social relationships will bealienated to some extent. The“soft law”in our country is in a dilemma that it hasseveral defects such as widespread alienation phenomena, power offside andabsence of“soft law”and“hard law”, when it works in our country. These defectsattribute to lack of modern legal system idea, imperfection of legislative procedureand absence of supervision. As a result, to improve the“soft law”in our country, weshould adhere to making the“soft law”go forward to ruled by law; rationalizing theinitiative procedure; enhancing the system of supervisor in“soft law”; andreaching the ultimate goal of rule of law under the soft-hard hybrid structure.