Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, between March and July 2020, Spanish national and regional authorities made extensive use of soft law mechanisms to fight the spread of the virus and to tackle the consequences of the crisis. Soft law was used either as an instrument in and of itself, or as a justification for hard law instruments, with more than 200 non-binding measures being enacted by the state and by the Autonomous Communities. Spanish courts also used soft law as a tool to interpret existing hard law instruments, Such uses give rise to concerns about the transparency of administrative action and the principle of legal certainty. Moreover, the widespread use of soft law to justify the adoption of binding measures restricting fundamental rights might have consequences for democratic accountability and judicial control of executive action. This article indicates the need to reconsider the current system of constitutional and legal constraints attached to this form of regulation, by introducing some binding procedural rules relating to its adoption and its publication, and by clarifying its legal effects and the mechanism through which it can be enforced by courts.

中文翻译：

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西班牙冠状病毒时代的软法治理

在 COVID-19 大流行初期，即 2020 年 3 月至 7 月期间，西班牙国家和地区当局广泛使用软法律机制来对抗病毒的传播并应对危机的后果。软法本身被用作一种工具，或者被用作硬法工具的理由，国家和自治区制定了 200 多项不具约束力的措施。西班牙法院还使用软法作为解释现有硬法文书的工具，这种使用引起了对行政行为透明度和法律确定性原则的担忧。此外，广泛使用软法来证明采取限制基本权利的具有约束力的措施是正当的，这可能会对民主问责制和对行政行为的司法控制产生影响。