CISR at AALS: Bringing Soft Law into the Law School Classroom
Howard Smith, Executive Director, Center for Industry Self-Regulation
This month, the Center for Industry Self-Regulation (CISR) team attended the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Annual Meeting in New Orleans to share how CISR is advancing legal education on soft law—the flexible, industry-led governance mechanisms that operate alongside traditional regulation. AALS is the principal membership organization for U.S. law schools, representing more than 170 institutions and thousands of legal educators, making its annual meeting a central forum for shaping legal education.
In conversations across the AALS community, CISR highlighted the industry self-regulation curriculum we developed in collaboration with Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and piloted last spring by Professor Gary Marchant. The seminar, Standards, Soft Law, and Industry Self-Regulation, is being taught again this semester and is designed to prepare future lawyers to advise clients in a regulatory environment where private standards and voluntary governance play an increasingly central role.
The course responds to a persistent shortcoming in traditional legal education: while nearly every company relies on private standards, codes of conduct, certification programs, or other forms of soft law, these tools are rarely examined in depth in law school curricula. The seminar addresses that gap by focusing on how soft law systems are designed, implemented, and evaluated in practice, particularly in emerging and technology-driven sectors.
Students examine the strengths and limitations of different self-regulatory approaches, the conditions under which they are most likely to succeed, and the factors that contribute to failure.
The course syllabus incorporates extensive case studies across industries, including third-party certification programs, trade association governance, agency–industry collaboration, multistakeholder initiatives, and international soft law frameworks. Several modules draw directly on real-world examples involving BBB National Programs, including its National Advertising Division, Children's Advertising Review Unit, and Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council, giving students concrete exposure to how these systems operate in practice.
Importantly, the course does not treat soft law as simply an alternative to government regulation, but as part of a broader governance ecosystem. Students explore how soft law and hard law interact, including incorporation by reference, indirect enforcement mechanisms, and liability implications. The curriculum also addresses the legal and practical risks associated with self-regulation, including antitrust, intellectual property, contract, corporate governance, and insurance considerations, as well as critiques of industry-led approaches and tools for improving accountability and credibility.
You can request access to the curriculum for law, business, and public policy programs, which is designed to be modular and adaptable. Faculty can integrate components into courses such as administrative law, regulatory compliance, corporate governance, or legal ethics, or adopt the seminar as a standalone offering.
Since its launch, professors at more than 40 schools have requested access to the curriculum, with early adoption underway in several classrooms.
The response at AALS underscored growing interest among law schools in preparing students for a legal landscape where governance increasingly relies on a mix of public regulation and private ordering, particularly as technological change continues to outpace traditional regulatory processes. This interest aligns squarely with CISR’s mission to advance research, education, and practical understanding of industry self-regulation, and to equip the next generation of lawyers with a broader, more realistic set of regulatory tools.
This month, the Center for Industry Self-Regulation (CISR) team attended the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Annual Meeting in New Orleans to share how CISR is advancing legal education on soft law—the flexible, industry-led governance mechanisms that operate alongside traditional regulation. AALS is the principal membership organization for U.S. law schools, representing more than 170 institutions and thousands of legal educators, making its annual meeting a central forum for shaping legal education.
In conversations across the AALS community, CISR highlighted the industry self-regulation curriculum we developed in collaboration with Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and piloted last spring by Professor Gary Marchant. The seminar, Standards, Soft Law, and Industry Self-Regulation, is being taught again this semester and is designed to prepare future lawyers to advise clients in a regulatory environment where private standards and voluntary governance play an increasingly central role.
The course responds to a persistent shortcoming in traditional legal education: while nearly every company relies on private standards, codes of conduct, certification programs, or other forms of soft law, these tools are rarely examined in depth in law school curricula. The seminar addresses that gap by focusing on how soft law systems are designed, implemented, and evaluated in practice, particularly in emerging and technology-driven sectors.
Students examine the strengths and limitations of different self-regulatory approaches, the conditions under which they are most likely to succeed, and the factors that contribute to failure.
The course syllabus incorporates extensive case studies across industries, including third-party certification programs, trade association governance, agency–industry collaboration, multistakeholder initiatives, and international soft law frameworks. Several modules draw directly on real-world examples involving BBB National Programs, including its National Advertising Division, Children's Advertising Review Unit, and Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council, giving students concrete exposure to how these systems operate in practice.
Importantly, the course does not treat soft law as simply an alternative to government regulation, but as part of a broader governance ecosystem. Students explore how soft law and hard law interact, including incorporation by reference, indirect enforcement mechanisms, and liability implications. The curriculum also addresses the legal and practical risks associated with self-regulation, including antitrust, intellectual property, contract, corporate governance, and insurance considerations, as well as critiques of industry-led approaches and tools for improving accountability and credibility.
You can request access to the curriculum for law, business, and public policy programs, which is designed to be modular and adaptable. Faculty can integrate components into courses such as administrative law, regulatory compliance, corporate governance, or legal ethics, or adopt the seminar as a standalone offering.
Since its launch, professors at more than 40 schools have requested access to the curriculum, with early adoption underway in several classrooms.
The response at AALS underscored growing interest among law schools in preparing students for a legal landscape where governance increasingly relies on a mix of public regulation and private ordering, particularly as technological change continues to outpace traditional regulatory processes. This interest aligns squarely with CISR’s mission to advance research, education, and practical understanding of industry self-regulation, and to equip the next generation of lawyers with a broader, more realistic set of regulatory tools.