The Fabric of International Digital Soft Law at the Council of Europe
Résumé
In the last decade, the Council of Europe (CoE) has adopted no less than 34 soft law instruments specifically dealing with the online environment. That is to only mention its activities in the media sector, currently held under the ‘Media and Internet Governance’ Division. While other entities of the ‘Information Society’ Department (‘Data Protection’ and ‘Cybercrime’) have concentrated on the international Treaties they respectively have in charge, the ‘Media and Internet Governance’ Division thus seems to have balanced the non binding nature of its own instruments with their quantity, their variety, the width of their scope and, last but certainly not least, the very unique methodology it pioneered within the institution for their adoption, namely its openness to other actors than its Member States, making this intergovernmental organization one of the champions of multistakeholderism in action.
The proposed paper will analyze this true fabric of international soft law for the online environment that this CoE Division has become. This regulatory governance activity analysis is structured around three main research questions: why the turn to such an intense activity in 2006; the kind, scope and substance of the considered 34 soft law instruments and especially the reasons for this choice of non binding instruments; the cooperation and tensions that punctuated the drafting and adoption of the considered instruments during the ten years period.
The methodological approach uses a multi-disciplinary conceptual framework, drawing from communication studies, international and human rights law, political science and international relations. The paper will show a strong empirical dimension, based on data collection through interviews, document analysis and archival research, and enriched by the author’s unique experience of participant observation, from 2005 to 2013, to the different CoE committees of experts that discussed and prepared a large part of the considered 34 soft law instruments.