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Globalisation & Law Network seminar with Aleydis Nissen

In November 2024, the EU adopted a Regulation prohibiting products made with forced labour on the Union market. How will this new legal framework reshape the economic and political landscape both in Europe and beyond? On 11 December 2024, the Globalisation & Law Network had the pleasure to welcome Dr Aleydis Nissen, Senior Research Fellow at the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Assistant Professor at the University of Antwerp, who addressed this question in her talk titled ‘Global Value Chain Regulation in the Era of Geopolitics’. Aleydis' ongoing research in this area builds on her monograph ‘The European Union, Emerging Global Business and Human Rights’ (CUP 2022) as well as her earlier critique of the Commission’s proposal on introducing a forced labour import ban (published in Oslo Law Review in 2023). Anna Beckers served as a discussant.

Aleydis began her presentation by offering an overview of the forced labor import ban regulations in the US, Canada, Mexico, and the EU. Given the groundbreaking nature of these developments, she highlighted their impact on three different areas, namely business and human rights, trade law for economic governance, and geopolitics. Finally, Aleydis analysed the developments from an international law perspective, focusing on the frameworks of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The presentation was followed by a discussion which touched upon the issues of ‘geopolitisation’, gender dimensions of forced labour, and the role of the Global South in the emerging regulatory framework on business and human rights.

The Globalisation & Law Network will reconvene in 2025. You are kindly invited to register for our upcoming seminars.

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