In the intricate web of global commerce, the interconnectedness of production networks spans continents, with goods flowing seamlessly across borders. Yet, beneath this veneer of efficiency lies a darker reality: a systemic entanglement of human rights violations and environmental degradation within global value chains (GVCs). These chains, comprising numerous stages of production dispersed across countries, often mask the exploitation of both people and nature. One glaring example is the extractive industries, where – outside the inherent adverse effect and the impact on the environment – the level is constantly very high and often produce unexpected natural catastrophes. It led to many scandal which are more and more litigated such as the recent claim brought by sixty Yemenis demanding compensation from TotalEnergies, accused of having polluted the land and water of a region in eastern Yemen where it exploited an oil field for nearly 20 years.
Efforts to address these issues have been met with mixed success. Initiatives such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and voluntary sustainability certifications aim to mitigate human rights and environmental risks within GVCs. However, critics argue that such measures often fall short, serving as mere window dressing while underlying systemic issues persist. Nevertheless, 2024 marks a turning point in terms of corporate respect for human rights and environmental standards. The latest European Union texts resulting from the Green Deal, among which the CSDDD – on which an agreement has been approved during on the 15th of march by member states – enshrine corporate respect for human rights and the environment in the form of binding obligations. Following in the footsteps of France, Norway, and Germany, the EU is marking 25 years of silent legal (r)evolution.
Understanding this context, the subsequent responsive law hardly debated within EU institutions requires delving into the dynamics that perpetuate such abuses. Deconstructing GVCs is an essential first step to understanding the dynamics of power and control that maintain North/South divisions and perpetuate human rights and environmental violations in this setting.
While looking back at the stormy debates that preceded the adoption of the CSDDD, this workshop will offer an analytical reading of the CSDDD as a responsive law seeking to solve GVCs inherent issues. It will then consider the best practices of all the actors and experts involved in the fields of business, human rights, and the environment, in order to better understand how the practice of regulation is actually co-producing – shaping the substance – of the governing supply chain laws and practices of the law often introduced as managerial systems .
Finally, this workshop will present the hypotheses of an ongoing research project, offering insights for a critical perspective on EU regulation of value chains. Now that the GVCs are formally deconstructed, how to deconstruct their politics in order to better understand the hierarchies of knowledge production when regulating environmental risks, a law, sciences, and technology analysis of the GVCs infrastructural framework. In other words, what kind of socio-ecological transition/transformation is empirically shaped by EU law, and often contested regarding its lack of legitimacy.
Speakers:
· Luca Tenreira, Master Student LLM, Departement of Law, European University Institute
· Maria Luisa Andrisani (Discussant), Visiting Fellow, Florence School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute
· Laura Iozzelli (Chair), Research Fellow, Florence School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute