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. 

Awareness of industry self-regulation may be low, but its potential to improve our society is high. The 2024 Soft Law Summit once again 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. 

The Summit examined:

• Social media and the case for industry self-regulation
• The federal administrative state, including discussion of Supreme Court cases Loper Bright v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Department of Commerce (“Chevron deference” cases)
• Governance of and regulatory models for artificial intelligence (AI)
• The modern challenges of protecting children’s privacy online