ABSTRACT
This paper proposes that contemporary efforts to govern Global Value Chains (GVCs), to reduce the various negative externalities that they generate, focus on the construction of a legal infrastructure that has traceability as its central function. Traceability refers to the ability to track the history, application, and location of a product or process throughout its entire lifecycle. It involves recording and storing information about the origin, movement, and transformation of a product, from its raw material stage to its final destination. Traceability infrastructures have been crucial elements in global supply chains, for multiple reasons, but also, more specifically, in order to meet various legal requirements. This paper gives an overview of traceability, in general and as a legal requirement, and explains how mandatory due diligence legislation must be analysed through its rather implicit traceability requirements. In particular, it focuses on the key element of stakeholder engagement in mandatory due diligence and explains how this too requires traceability and why it should be understood as legally required social traceability. It concludes with a reflection on the broader significance of this burgeoning legal phenomenon.
Amaya-Castro, Juan M, Law And Social Traceability: Global Value Chains With A Human Face? (December 19, 2024), University of Edinburgh School of Law | LSGL Research Project Papers 2024.13-06.
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