JEP » Issues » New International Social and Environmental Rules: Putting People Over Profit? » The EU CSDDD: Potential Entry Points for Transferring Power Resources within Global Value Chains

The EU CSDDD: Potential Entry Points for Transferring Power Resources within Global Value Chains

Autor*innen: Gonzalo Durán, Johannes Jäger, Lukas Schmidt
https://doi.org/10.20446/JEP-2414-3197-40-3-4
Volume XXXX • Issue 3 • 2024
Pages 4-22
Keywords: Human rights, power resources, political economy, European Union, binding social and environmental standards

Abstract

The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (EU CSDDD) represents an important new legal instrument that aims to protect human rights. The chapter examines whether the directive potentially represents an important step forward to transferring power resources within global value chains to the Global South. The paper starts by providing a brief overview of the making of the EU CSDDD. This is followed by an analysis of economic perspectives on international standards and by showing how a critical political economy perspective on global value chains and the power resources approach can be used to analyse this new binding legal instrument. Based on this theoretical framework, three possible scenarios and five entry points to increase the effectiveness of the EU CSDDD are presented. It is concluded that the effectiveness of the EU CSDDD will very much depend on whether power will be effectively transferred to workers and civil society in the Global South. Strengthening international civil society networks will be crucial for that. However, it remains to be seen whether the EU CSDDD represents a first step towards much more far-reaching international standards leading to more fundamental progressive changes in the global economy.

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