The legal strategies employed by France and Sweden to combat the Covid-19 pandemic differed significantly. Indeed, the articulation of hard law and soft law instruments varied, particularly due to differences in the trust placed by the state in its citizens. Meanwhile, both countries faced the same necessity of implementing efficient and effective standards designed to combat the pandemic. However, the fluctuating context in which these norms were established, along with the difficulty for the intended recipients to distinguish between what was mandatory and what was merely advisory, significantly contributed to the lack of legibility in health regulations in both countries.