• Understanding the paradox of how new forms of production rely on contractual boundaries to limit liability and, at the same time, utilize new technologies and ideologies of governance to extend the effects of governance beyond these boundaries and throughout the value chain.
• Gaining knowledge and skills to understand the role of law in shaping economic production.
• Learning to critically assess the effects of different legal frameworks in light of production-related interests ranging from economic efficiency to security of supply and sustainability, such as climate change mitigation
• Acquiring practical skills for evaluating the legal effects of different kinds of contractual governance and a toolbox for developing appropriate means of governance for diverse production related contexts and tasks.
• Understanding the how contracts operate in the transnational space between state boundaries and beyond international law.
• Gaining critical and pluralistic insight in concepts relevant to modern production, such as the global value chain.

We explore the role of contract as a fundamental building block of the global economy. It is difficult, almost impossible, to find products and services that are not dependent on global networks of contractually connected actors. We are connected to these global networks by contract, which at the same time insulates us from them. If we buy a cup of coffee at a coffee shop we do not need to care about the networks of contracts instantly connecting our transaction to corporate headquarters in Seattle and Vevey, global financial and logistics infrastructures, certification and auditing schemes, biodiversity loss, child labor or political strife on Guatemalan coffee plantations, to say nothing of the conflict in Ukraine or our own Danish pension funds.

Paradoxically, at the same time we have unprecedented visibility over the global networks of value that connect all actors in the world. Supply chain management systems, digital algorithms and the internet of things have long enabled the real-time remote monitoring of transactions and labor with techniques ranging from tracking global flows of goods to monitoring computer screen activity at Indian software suppliers and digitally connected sewing machine networks in Bangladeshi factories. Coupled with the life-cycle tracking of goods through RFID-tags, digital product passports and supply chain management software, we have very nearly perfect visibility of globally fragmented production and consumption. 

A burning question is to how to resolve this paradox. Interests of economic efficiency, global sustainability and security of supply are driving firms to privately monitor and control their contractually organized production networks. Corporate interests, regulators and NGOs are all vying for control over the very same value chains that supposedly exist in an apolitical transnational vacuum of private ordering. What is the future of law in global production—will visibility lead to accountability, or will the current system, allowing outsourcing without consideration of its global externalities, prevail?

During this course we ask the question of what has been, is, and will be the role of law in giving rise to and governing global value chain capitalism, today’s reigning mode of production. How can we use legal tools, such as private governance mechanisms, new regulatory initiatives, private international law, and contract and tort law, to tackle value chains from perspectives ranging from increasing their economic efficiency to guaranteeing sustainability or national security of supply. 

The course thus focuses on the foundational role of contract in forming, governing and regulating global value chains. New forms of production, such as global value chains, digital platforms, and the circular economy, have utilized new technologies and ideologies of governance to extend the governance effects of contract far beyond privity. This course introduces the development of these new forms of production and how they can be governed and provides a legal perspective on supply chain management and the governance of global production, whether for increased efficiency, sustainability or security of supply. This provides students a toolbox enabling them to make informed decisions on the legal consequences of different modes and techniques of organizing production. 

The course is taught as a "study group" which requires a high degree of student involvement in class and between classes. The teaching, cases and reading materials provide the foundation for the one-week project. The project must provide a scholarly analysis of a relevant case in the industry. 

collection or compendium of articles, cases and other materials