Category: Volume 57, Issue 1
Trade, Labor Conditionality, and Supply Chain Resilience (Vol. 57, Fall 2024)
Kevin Kolben
The concept of supply chain resilience, and even the supply chain itself, has evolved from being a technical concern of individual firms and organizations to a high priority of national governments For firms, supply chain resilience is a condition in which supply chains operate continuously and efficiently despite various shocks to the system U S…
Mar 2025
Transnational Labor Law as a Spiderweb: Is There a Spider? Is There a Web? (Vol. 57, Fall 2024)
Guy Mundlak
In 2005, Sir Bob Hepple published one of the frst books describing contemporary transnational labor law/governance (TLG).1 The book pointed out several characteristics of this contemporary field.2 First, it signifed the transition from international to transnational; that is, a body of law that is no longer confined to the relations between nations. TLG designates both…
Mar 2025
Gender, Value-Chain Upgrading, and The Costs of Human Capital: The Case of a Garment Supply Chain in China (Vol. 57, Fall 2024)
Yiran Zhang
The Global Value Chain (GVC) has become a mainstream analytical framework to map the unequal distribution of value-addition and surplus-capturing power across the global supply-chain economy. Gender and development scholars find that gender inequality in and beyond the GVC constitutes unequal distribution of economic surplus in the GVC. Meanwhile, the GVC discussion also generates a…
Mar 2025
Protecting Workers’ Rights in Global Supply Chains: Will the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive Make a Meaningful Difference? (Vol. 57, Fall 2024)
Jeffrey Vogt† & Ruwan Subasinghe†
The road to the adoption of the European Union’s (EU) Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) was a long and winding one. Following years of work by EU institutions and continuous advocacy by civil society organizations, including trade unions, last-minute objections from some EU member states threatened to derail the process entirely. After making several…
Mar 2025
Reimagining Labor Governance in Global Value Chains: Lessons from the Mathadi Model for Adapting Wage Boards to Transnational Labor Governance (Vol. 57, Fall 2024)
Hila Shamir† & Shelley Marshall†
There is growing evidence that private corporate and multi-stakeholder initiatives— often termed ‘Supply Chain Solutions’—are failing to address the social and environmental challenges arising from the governance of Global Value Chains (GVCs). GVCs themselves challenge traditional labor laws and employment regulations due to their multi-tiered supply structures, the dynamics of private power, and the cross-border…
Mar 2025
Voice, Prevention, Remedy: Key Elements in a Global Supply Chain Convention (Vol. 57, Fall 2024)
James Brudney
Borrowing from Albert Hirschman’s classic work, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, focused on deteriorating performance in economic organizations, this Article explores the interplay among three key elements of a proposed International Convention on Global Supply Chains (GSCs). In doing so, it suggests that Hirschman’s model may not have adequately appreciated the distinctive role of power in…
Mar 2025
For Protection or For Profit? Non-State Actors in Global Labor Migration Governance (Vol. 57, Fall 2024)
Janie Chuang
Development economists have sounded the alarm: we face a global demographic crisis that threatens massive global labor shortages and resulting economic doom. According to the World Bank, demographic growth patterns are intensifying global competition for workers and talent, creating a “great divergence.” On the one hand, advanced economies face aging societies, where the ratio of…
Mar 2025