The 2025 Soft Law Summit will be held on October 7, 2025, in Washington, DC.
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It's Time for Industry to Lead
Industry self-regulation, a form of soft law, has long been an effective option to help business solve systemic, industry-wide challenges and achieve important policy objectives. And to truly harness its power, it is important to understand industry self-regulation’s shortcomings (both real and perceived) as well as what aspects may yield the most success.
Each year, CISR convenes industry leaders, regulators, and academic experts providing a platform and resources to have this critical debate in an objective setting.
In Partnership with:
Previous Summits
2024 Summit
The 2024 Soft Law Summit brought together industry leaders, academics, and policy makers to dissect and examine how the challenges and opportunities for America's business sectors have been and can be addressed by independent industry self-regulation.
2023 Summit
At the 2023 Soft Law Summit, attendees examined examples of industry self-regulation in practice, explored its various models in use across industries, discussed what works and what has not worked, and identified the tools and best practices that most often lead to success.
Research
CISR routinely commissions academic research on current topics, across a wide variety of sectors. In 2023, seven papers were presented as part of the Soft Law Summit and used to discuss the practical application and potential of soft law and industry self-regulation.
Soft Law Functions in the International Governance of AI
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics
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