Transnational supply chains have become increasingly important in our global political economy in recent decades. In many cases, they have caused or contributed to a shift of environmental problems to and human rights violations in the Global South. Governments have recently begun to adopt a ground-breaking set of binding measures to hold corporations accountable. A workshop organized by Stockholm University and Osnabrück University examined the central tool in this new wave of regulation - ‘mandatory due diligence’ (MDD) laws. It was organized in collaboration with the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), and the Research Network Sustainable Global Supply Chains.

MDD laws obligate companies to assess and address negative impacts caused by subsidiaries and suppliers, thereby promising to contribute to corporate accountability across national borders. However, we still know little about their actual implications and consequences on the ground. The workshop brought together around 30 leading scholars, policymakers, and civil society representatives to discuss the regulation of global supply chains by new public policies from the demand-side and their consequences in terms of just sustainability. As part of the workshops, a high-level roundtable was held for disseminating knowledge to a broader audience and foster a debate.

The workshop was the final workshop of a three-year research project entitled “Bringing the social dimension into deforestation-free supply chains: Lessons from Europe's beef and soy imports from Brazil” funded by Formas and led by Prof. Dr. Maria-Therese Gustafsson and Prof. Dr. Almut Schilling-Vacaflor.