comparing legal vs. non-legal agreements daniel bodansky arizona state university college of law
TRANSCRIPT
Comparing legal vs. non-legal agreements
Daniel BodanskyArizona State University College of Law
How might an agreement influence state behavior?
Normative factors
Domestic political factors
Instrumental factors
Normative factors
Agreement changes view of appropriate behavior Creates sense of legal obligation, sense
of duty to comply Promotes social learning, changes
perceptions of self-interest Norms in agreement internalized,
followed as a matter of course
Instrumental factors
Agreement changes states’ calculus of costs and benefits States comply because they are afraid
that if they violate, others will as well States comply to to avoid reputational
costs of violation Other states threaten to raise costs of
violation by imposing sanctions Other states provide assistance to lower
costs of compliance
Domestic political factors
Agreement changes domestic political game Empowers domestic agencies with
implementation responsibilities Can be applied/enforced by domestic
courts Gives NGOs a hook to pressure
government
Legal form only one aspect of “bindingness”
Other factors can influence effectiveness Ambition Precision Mandatory quality of provisions Review mechanisms
Can be trade-offs among factors Legal form may lower effectiveness if leads
to less amibitious, vaguer commitments
Effectiveness of political agreements
Negotiations can Increase public awareness Encourage social learning Lead to convergence of expectations
Agreement can Encourage domestic policy
development and implementation Create review mechanisms Produce reputational costs for violation
Effectiveness of legal agreements
Legal agreements can Create stronger sense of internal obligation Reflect greater domestic buy-in Produce higher reputational costs for
violation Allow domestic judicial implementation
>> Legal agreements signal stronger commitment than political agreements
Is there empirical evidence that legal agreements more effective?
Most of scholarship on legal vs. non-legal agreements theoretical
Little empirical study comparing effectiveness of legal vs. non-legal agreements Usually, legal and non-legal agreements
differ along other dimensions as well Hard to find an “apples to apples”
comparison