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?

Research interests

  • Postcolonial and Feminist Theory
  • Legal Anthropology/Law and Society
  • Critical Legal Theory (Feminist, postcolonial, materialist)
  • Postcolonial/Feminist Science and Technology Studies (STS)
  • Postcolonial perspectives on Bremen

Vita

  • 2017 – 2022
    Law (First State Exam), University of Bremen.
  • 2014 – 2018
    M.A. Transcultural Studies, University of Bremen and Paris I – Sorbonne-Panthéon.
  • 2010 – 2014
    B.A. Political Science, University of Bremen.

Publications

  • 2024
    Decolonization Through Decolonial Reforming In: Debate: The World Health System After the Pandemic: Towards Equity and Decolonization? Verfassungsblog.
  • 2024
    Towards Equity and Decolonization? An Introduction into the Blog Debate on the World Health System after the Pandemic (together with Jelena von Achenbach & Andreas Fischer-Lescano) In: Debate: The World Health System After the Pandemic: Towards Equity and Decolonization? Verfassungsblog.
  • 2023
    The Colonial Making of Bremen’s Peri-Urban Port Area (together with Janne Jensen) In: Chatterjee, Chojnicka, Hornidge, Knopf, Shilliam, Faraclas, Ingersoll, et al (Hg.). Postcolonial Oceans, 219-236. Heidelberg University Publishing. https://doi.org/10.17885/HEIUP.1046.
  • 2023
    Babycaust? Keine Volksverhetzung! Die deutsche Justiz versagt bei der Bekämpfung von Holocaustverharmlosung und Aufstachelung zum Hass. In: Austermann, Fischer-Lescano, Kleffner, Lang, Pichl, Steinke, and Vetter (Hg.) Recht gegen rechts: Report 2023. 307–314. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer, 2023.
  • 2019
    ‘Wessen Recht für wen?’. boasblog DCNtR. https://boasblogs.org/de/dcntr/wessen-recht-fuer-wen/.
  • 2019
    Der Beginn menschlichen Lebens in der Abtreibungsdebatte [The Beginning of Human Life in the Discussion on Abortion] in Phase Eins – Regulierung von Schwangerschaft, Forum Recht, 4/2019.

Talks, Workshops, and Events

  • 30.11.2023
    Talk Rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen von Straßenumbenennungen in Bremen at the Conference Der Elefant im Raum, organized by the Bremen’s Colonial History Working Group.
  • since 2016
    Development and performance of a postcolonial city tour through Bremen-Überseestadt and development of an audiowalk. Accessible at: https://ankerpunkte.ak-hafen.de/.
  • 20.07.2023
    Talk Ethnografie als Methode (in) der Rechtswissenschaft at the 63. Junge Tagung Öffentliches Recht in Hamburg.
  • 23.10.2018
    Talk Anbau, Handel, Verarbeitung, Prüfung und Qualitätsstandards von Baumwolle. Welche Rolle hat Bremen heute? [Cultivation, trade, processing, testing and quality standards of cotton. The role of Bremen today?] as part of the theme-centered semester on Global Cotton together with Dr. Axel Drieling, Faserinstitut Bremen.
  • 19.10.2018
    Talk Reflexionen über Konzeption und Durchführung postkolonialer Stadtrundgänge in ehemaligen Hafengebieten am Beispiel Bremen [Reflexions on the conception and performance of postcolonial city tours in former harbour areas by the example of Bremen] on the international symposium Häfen. Knotenpunkte der Globalisierung. Geschichte, Perspektiven, Musealisierung [Ports. Nodal Points of Globalisation. History, Perspectives, Musealisation] of the German Harbour Museum /Hamburg; with Janne Jensen.
  • 13.08.2018
    Talk Baumwollbörse, Überseehafen und Qualitätsstandards. Was der Kolonialismus mit Bremen und seinem Baumwollhandel zu tun hat.[Cotton Exchange, Overseas Harbour and Quality Standards. How Colonialism is Related to Bremen and its Cotton Trade.] during the Informatica Feminale/Ingenieurinnen-Sommeruni, University of Bremen.
  • 28.05.2018
    Participation in a panel discussion King Cotton – Die Geschichte des globalen Kapitalismus [King Cotton – The History of Global Capitalism] with Sven Beckert, Klaus Schlichte, Ohiniko Toffa u.a. (University of Bremen).
  • 15.05.2018
    Talk Globaler Baumwollhandel postkolonial betrachtet [Global Cotton Trade under a postcolonial lens] during the excursion Bremen-Liverpool – Postkoloniale Hafenstädte (Silke Betscher und Martina Grimmig).

Interviews

problem to be solved

“Contradiction is not primarily a problem to be solved but a motor we cannot do without.”

Martin Nonhoff
name contradiction

“Contradiction becomes real where someone names contradiction.”

Ingo H. Warnke
coherence in thought

“The imperative of non-contradiction generally produces a coherence in thought that is often at odds with social complexities.”

Yan Suarsana
Is contradiction eurocentric?

“Is contradiction a eurocentric concept, operational phenomenon, and instrument of power?”

Kerstin Knopf
limits

“Resistance is a democratic right, sometimes a duty. With literature we can find models for this right and think about its limits.”

Gisela Febel