Soft Law as International Financial Regulation Method in the Foreign Financial Law Doctrine

Abstract

The article deals with the foreign approaches to soft law as a range of non-binding instruments issued by the international financial institutions. Soft-law method is widely recognized and has practical application in all areas of international financial regulation although till now there is no single understanding of this phenomenon both in the Russian and foreign law doctrines. The method is particularly widespread in the international financial sphere where its instruments include various codes of conduct, best practices, key principles, guidelines, recommendations, and instructions known as “international financial standards”. These standards are developed by international financial regulators – the IMF, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, IOSCO, FATF, the IASB and others, and its compliance is stimulated and jointly controlled by the IMF and the World Bank. It is concluded that the interaction of hard and soft law is increasingly important in the globalizing world and it is necessary to conceptualize its ambivalent results.