Non-Legal Sanctions in Soft Law

Based on the current approach، to ascertain and enforce the sanctions in law is one of the exclusive functions of governments. But the deeper examination reveals that many transactors prefer non-legal sanctions. At first glance، this self-enforcement mechanism seems to be contrary to legal fundamentals. Therefore، these sanctions are contested in law. This article is an attempt to consider a new approach. The article represents the multi- faced concept of sanction and tries to outline obvious reasons for preferring non- legal sanctions. The article focused on soft law because in this new branch of law، the honor of obligations is based on reputational cost and not coercive third- party mechanisms. As a result it is safe to say that in spite of what is accepted in traditional legal theories، compliance of obligations is widely influenced by non- legal sanctions.