OECD and Soft Law
Unlike many other inter-governmental organizations like the United Nations or the European Commission, the OECD cannot legislate or enforce laws and doesn't have the power to coerce a country, member or not, to alter its policy.
However, it can have an influence on national policies through soft laws, by issuing "recommendations", "guidelines" and other "manuals", that countries or companies can refer to. Some of these guidelines have become de facto standards, such as the OECD Guidelines for the Testing of Chemicals or the OECD Model Tax Convention.
Also, negotiations and agreements between representatives of member countries can happen at the OECD, and have direct consequences in national laws.
Read more about this topic: Organisation For Economic Co-operation And Development Controversy
Famous quotes containing the words soft and/or law:
“Ellie: By the way, what’s your name?
Peter: What’s that?
Ellie: Who are you?
Peter: Who, me? I’m the whippoorwill that cries in the night. I’m the soft morning breeze that caresses your lovely face.
Ellie: You’ve got a name, haven’t you?
Peter: Yeah, I got a name. Peter Warne.
Ellie: Peter Warne? I don’t like it.”
—Robert Riskin (1897–1955)
“The law before us, my lords, seems to be the effect of that practice of which it is intended likewise to be the cause, and to be dictated by the liquor of which it so effectually promotes the use; for surely it never before was conceived by any man entrusted with the administration of public affairs, to raise taxes by the destruction of the people.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)