Soft Law
Definition
A standard adopted by an international body, such as a General Assembly resolution, that carries persuasive and interpretive weight but is not itself legally binding on member states the way a ratified treaty is.
Related terms
- Nelson Mandela Rules
- The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, revised and renamed by the UN General Assembly in December 2015,...
- Non-Custodial Measures
- Sentences or pre-trial measures that do not involve imprisonment, such as probation, community service, suspended sentences, fines and diversion, the subject of...
- Tokyo Rules
- The UN Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures, adopted by UN General Assembly resolution 45/110 in 1990, setting safeguards for probation, community...
- Solitary Confinement
- The confinement of a prisoner for 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact; the Nelson Mandela Rules cap it...
- Solitary Confinement Limits
- Rule 44 defines solitary confinement as 22 or more hours a day without meaningful human contact, and Rule 43 bans it once...
- Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners
- The original 1955 instrument on prison conditions, adopted at the First UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of...
- UN General Assembly Resolution 45/110
- The resolution that adopted the Tokyo Rules on 14 December 1990.
- UN General Assembly Resolution 70/175
- The resolution that adopted the Nelson Mandela Rules on 17 December 2015, without a vote.
Explained in these topics
- Nelson Mandela Rules and Tokyo Rules (UGC-NET Unit VII)Standards adopted by consensus or without a vote that carry normative weight but create no binding treaty obligation, the category both instruments fall into.
- UN Standards for Offender Treatment: the Nelson Mandela Rules and the Tokyo Rules