Is ‘Global Value Chain’ a Legal Concept?

AbstractToday’s organization of production and services along global value chains (GVCs) uses contracts as central building blocks, yet is largely disconnected from contract law’s dominant epistemology and social imaginary. This article charts when, how and why GVCs have appeared on the radar of contract scholars and unravels the related methodological and disciplinary challenges. Rather than treating GVCs as a ‘legal concept’ in a strict sense that might command the application of particular rules, I propose to understand them as a ‘legal heuristic’: GVCs require contract law to revisit its constitutive role for matters of distribution, participation and equality under globalization. Towards this, GVCs need to be understood as organizational arrangement and simultaneously as a stage in the evolution of a global political economy. Beyond the classical confines of ‘contract governance’, this brings into the picture the wide array of formal and informal technologies of ‘contract governmentality’. Together with the material, technological or informational infrastructure, these are referred to as ‘code’ of GVCs, suggested here as focus of future contract law research on GVCs.

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Contract Law Aspects of Sustainable Companies’ Certification in the Global Value Chain

European Review of Contract Law ◽

10.1515/ercl-2019-0002 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 31-52

Author(s):

Juan Yang

Keyword(s):

Value Chain ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Civil Law ◽

Economic Globalization ◽

Contract Law ◽

Global Value Chain ◽

Legal Relationship ◽

Effective Instrument ◽

Private Certification ◽

Boundary Limits

Abstract Against the background of economic globalization, sustainable development has attracted increasing attention. Given the boundary limits of jurisdiction, national legal systems are often insufficient to promote sustainability on a transnational level. Intergovernmental agreements and the private self-regulation are at play to fill the gap. As an effective instrument of the latter, sustainable companies’ certification assesses the sustainability of the company as a whole rather than evaluate particular products or services. Although private certification schemes vary greatly across different countries, they are all based on contracts. Three parties are involved in the certification regime, namely certification bodies, companies, and third parties such as customers as well as investors. There are different legal relationships between each two of them. In the case of misleading certification, the German Civil Law provides different approaches to solve disputes according to the legal relationship between the parties.

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LA CADENA GLOBAL DE VALOR EN LA INDUSTRIA ELECTRÓNICA

Investigación Económica ◽

10.22201/fe.01851667p.2018.304.66402 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 77 (304) ◽

pp. 135

Author(s):

Josep Lladós Masllorens ◽

Antoni Meseguer Artola ◽

Jordi Vilaseca Requena

Keyword(s):

Value Chain ◽

Electronics Industry ◽

Global Scale ◽

Global Value Chain ◽

Input Output ◽

Production And Distribution ◽

Distribución Geográfica ◽

The One ◽

Organization Of Production ◽

Trade And Investment

RESUMENLas cadenas globales de valor son uno de los elementos más paradigmáticos de la transformación del comercio y la inversión internacional. La industria electrónica es un caso representativo de una actividad integrada globalmente que ha configurado un ecosistema de complejidad creciente. Utilizando una aproximación basada en el uso de las tablas input-output se infiere la naturaleza de los cambios experimentados en la organización internacional de la producción, atendiendo a la distribución geográfica y factorial del valor generado en cada una de las fases productivas por cada uno de los países participantes en la cadena de producción. Por un lado, se confirma que el grado de fragmentación productiva ha aumentado crecientemente, al tiempo que el nodo de Asia oriental se reestructura alrededor de China y se configura como el principal generador de valor en el sector, con una interacción creciente a escala global. Finalmente, se pone de manifiesto un proceso de intensa sustitución factorial en favor del capital y el trabajo más cualificado. THE GLOBAL VALUE CHAIN IN THE ELECTRONICS INDUSTRYABSTRACTGlobal value chains are one of the most paradigmatic elements of the transformation of international trade and investment. The electronics industry is a characteristic example of a globally integrated activity that has shaped an ecosystem of increasing complexity. Using a methodology based on input-output tables, we infer the essence of the changes experienced in the international organization of production, taking into account the geographical and factorial distribution of the value generated by each member in every stage of the production and distribution processes. On the one hand, it is confirmed that the degree of outsourcing has increased. On the other, that the East Asian pole organized around China has become the main source of value for the industry, with an increasing interaction on a global scale. Finally, it reveals a process of intense factorial substitution in favour of capital and high-skilled labour.

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The Changing Patterns of North Korea’s International Film Co-Productions Since the 1980s: A Global Value Chain Approach

European Journal of Korean Studies ◽

10.33526/ejks.20201902.83 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 83-108

Author(s):

Moon Hwy-Chang ◽

Wenyang Yin

Keyword(s):

Value Chain ◽

North Korea ◽

Film Industry ◽

International Standards ◽

The Political ◽

Global Value Chain ◽

Comprehensive Understanding ◽

Changing Patterns ◽

Film Productions

Although North Korea is one of the most closed countries in the world, it has long been pursuing international cooperation with other countries in order to upgrade the quality of its film industry to international standards. Preceding studies on this topic have mainly focused on the political influences behind filmmaking in general and very few studies have exclusively dealt with North Korea’s international co-productions. In this respect, in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of the internalization strategy of North Korea’s film productions, this paper uses the global value chain as a framework for analysis. This approach helps understand the internationalization pattern of each value chain activity of film co-productions in terms of the film location and the methods for collaborating with foreign partners. By dividing the evolution of North Korea’s international co-productions into three periods since the 1980s, this paper finds that although North Korea has shown mixed results with different aspects of the film value chain, it has generally improved its internationalization over the three periods. This paper further provides strategic directions for North Korea by learning some of the successful Chinese experiences in the film sector regarding collaboration with foreign partners—to foster a win-win situation for all involved parties.

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