Lilli Hasche

Transnational Legal Struggles on Contracts for Better Working Conditions in Global Supply Chains

The global economic system is characterized by a transnational mode of production in supply and value chains in which workers are structurally exploited and human rights are violated. Transnational companies operate with the help of a network of subcontractors and trading partners. In addition to national and international law, these value chains are designed by contracts between transnational corporations, suppliers and their employees. Thus, contracts allow production through division of labor, co-constitute supply chains (legally) and influence working and living conditions of workers worldwide.

After the boom of corporate social responsibility initiatives, newer approaches try to influence contracts with the aim to shape them in a way that prevents human rights violations. Transnational legal theory makes it possible to study contract networks as law and contract negotiations as legal struggles. How, for example, do responsible contracting initiatives with model contract clauses and transnational trade union networks attempt to influence contract design and negotiations in labour disputes? What challenges do they face? How do they deal with contradictions?