The term soft law is also often used to describe various kinds of quasi-legal policy instruments of the European Union: "recommendation", "codes of conduct", "guidelines", "communications" etc.
A directive shall be binding, as to the result to be achieved, upon each Member State to which it is addressed, but shall leave to the national authorities the choice of form and methods.
These represent the views of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, but are not legally binding for the 47 member states.
Another possibility is that non-treaty agreements are intended to have a direct influence on the practice of states, and to the extent that they are successful in doing so, they may lead to the creation of customary law.
With the passage of time, in today's globalized society it is easy to use the media and the internet to spread the knowledge of the content of declarations and commitments made at international conferences.
Soft law is also important in human resource management related matters such as gender equality, diversity and other topics (health and safety for instance).
In social matters, so-called 'binding' legislations often leave considerable room for discretion and interpretation, whereas sometimes, 'soft law' instruments can be imposed by powerful stakeholders on their suppliers.
Nevertheless, the reliance on soft law continues and it is unlikely that its use will fade; it is far more likely to be relied on in greater amounts as it also serves as a "testing ground" for new, innovative ideas that policy formulations are still being worked out for in a world of rapid change and future upcoming contentious challenges such as climate change.