The Efficacy of Regulation as a Function of Psychological Fit: Reexamining the Hard Law/Soft Law Continuum
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Deborah E Rupp
Much of the legal literature discusses regulation and regulatory forms with a seemingly implicit assumption that "those to be influenced" are inherently self-interested and thus motivated to comply with legal structures only when there are sufficient external incentives to do so. This view of the person is inconsistent with recent perspectives in the field of psychology. A law and morality perspective, coupled with insights from the field of psychology, asserts that influence, compliance, and motivation are far more complex than this legal literature would suggest. In this Article, we map the varying influence structures, motives, psychological needs, emotional mechanisms, and levels of moral reasoning that various forms of regulation, from hard law to soft law, might appeal to. We provide examples from global banking and one soft law initiative, the Equator Principles, to illustrate reasons psychology would suggest why soft law may be more effective in some circumstances in influencing behavior within the firm than hard law, while recognizing important limits to such influence.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
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- Introduction
- Transnational Labor Regulation and the Limits of Governance
- Global Justice, Labor Standards and Responsibility
- In Defense of Soft Law and Public-Private Initiatives: A Means to an End? -- The Malaysian Case
- Private Environmental Governance in Hard Times: Markets for Virtue and the Dynamics of Regulatory Change
- Transnational Governance as the Layering of Rules: Intersections of Public and Private Standards
- Private Environmental Governance as Ensemble Regulation: A Critical Exploration of Sustainability Indexes and the New Ensemble Politics
- The Efficacy of Regulation as a Function of Psychological Fit: Reexamining the Hard Law/Soft Law Continuum
- Signaling Virtue? A Comparison of Corporate Codes in the Fields of Labor and Environment
- The ISO 26000 International Guidance Standard on Social Responsibility: Implications for Public Policy and Transnational Democracy
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Introduction
- Transnational Labor Regulation and the Limits of Governance
- Global Justice, Labor Standards and Responsibility
- In Defense of Soft Law and Public-Private Initiatives: A Means to an End? -- The Malaysian Case
- Private Environmental Governance in Hard Times: Markets for Virtue and the Dynamics of Regulatory Change
- Transnational Governance as the Layering of Rules: Intersections of Public and Private Standards
- Private Environmental Governance as Ensemble Regulation: A Critical Exploration of Sustainability Indexes and the New Ensemble Politics
- The Efficacy of Regulation as a Function of Psychological Fit: Reexamining the Hard Law/Soft Law Continuum
- Signaling Virtue? A Comparison of Corporate Codes in the Fields of Labor and Environment
- The ISO 26000 International Guidance Standard on Social Responsibility: Implications for Public Policy and Transnational Democracy
