The EU Green Deal in Practice: Global South Perspectives and Imaginaries of Sustainability
16 June 2023
Making Sustainable Global Markets: The Emerging Law of Sustainable Global Production
The first stage of the FRIS project has just been completed and involved students and professors from the UvA, the University of São Paulo, Kenyatta University in Nairobi and the University of Turin/International Training Center of the International Labor Organization (ITC-ILO). One in-depth case study revolved around the EU Deforestation Regulation and the way it materialises along the value chain. The new UvA grant will enable the further development of this research and engage more academics and students from the Global South and North.
Course outline
Sustainability as a guideline for global markets and supply chains has given rise to numerous initiatives, rules and institutions over the past decade. Some are rooted in trade law, others in domestic politics of development, while again others use contractual mechanisms in the supply chain or public advocacy through ‘naming and shaming’. Taken together, such initiatives reflect a core idea of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely that sustainability requires action in a variety of fora, by public, hybrid and private actors alike.
The sessions highlight the role of law in permitting the establishment of unsustainable markets, lowering barriers to global trade and investment and enforcing transnational contracts but not accompanying such opening up of markets with sustainability requirements. Secondly, the course examines recent attempts to correct this imbalance by multiple legal means, including supply chain control legislation, sustainability requirements in trade policy, commitments in international trade agreements, and court cases permitting parent company liability for harms resulting from the activities of their subsidiaries or affiliates abroad.
The aim is to build an interdisciplinary and problem-oriented, interactive course targeted at a student audience with diverse backgrounds interested in the practice of sustainability in transnational markets. Students will learn how to navigate the complex field of sustainability governance in order to become future change-makers.
Our initial grant allowed us to set up a Global Classroom and engage postgraduate students and experts, coming from the Global North and the Global South, in discussions on new sustainability requirements for globalized economic production. We now aim to consolidate these exchanges, engaging not only academics but also a broader cross-hemisphere audience in a conversation on how global production and consumption could be reorganized, and maybe reimagined, if we are to meet the world’s sustainability needs.Geraldo Vidigal
What is a global classroom?
Student groups from top universities in the Global South have taken parts in online sessions for joint discussions and a group work project, leading to a ‘Compendium of Legal Sustainability Initiatives’ that catalogues and reflects upon existing initiatives into the international political economy. Besides the exchange and consolidation of information, the Compendium gives visibility to globally diverging discourses and perspectives.
About the researchers
Geraldo Vidigal brings in expertise from international economic and trade law and politics as well as law and development; Klaas Eller brings in expertise on private and contract law as well as supply chain management, legal transformation and civil society law-making. Both teachers have practical experience through delivering expert opinions and consulting in the field for international organizations, labor unions and NGOs.