Soft Law in City Regulation and Governance

This chapter examines the use of soft law instruments in the context of urban regulation and governance. Soft law provides local governments with tools to regulate crucial contemporary problems while fostering international collaboration and involving non-state actors in urban governance. These non-binding instruments offer new possibilities and expand cities' typically limited range of action at both national and international levels.
This chapter focuses on the use of soft law in smart cities, that is, urban centres that harness digital technology at the service of goals such as quality of life improvement. Smart cities have embraced soft law since they rely on new technologies (e.g., IoT networks, facial recognition) that pose challenges unaddressed by traditional regulation. Thus, smart cities employ technical standards, memoranda of understanding, charters of ethics, and establish international networks in their attempts to regulate urban problems with both local and global character.