Global Value Chains and Workers: Reconstructing an Epistemology for the Transnational Labor Question

Authors

Ulla Liukkunen

Abstract

This article examines transnational labor governance and contractualization in global value chains, arguing that framing the transnational labor question is essential to encapsulate workers’ needs for protection. At the same time, this question is fundamentally epistemological. Framing the question requires an epistemological reconstruction that moves beyond the dominant dichotomies inherent in evolving transnational private law – dichotomies that marginalize workers and obscure the role of employment contracts within transnational regulatory frameworks. The article points not only to the inadequacy of the transnational epistemological foundation, but also to the epistemic imbalance between the Global North and the Global South and the need to decolonize knowledge structures. Using the employment contract as a conceptual tool, this article identifies shortcomings in approaches to labor protection and explores the consequences of expanding party autonomy in the transnational legal environment. It argues that transnational contractualization in global value chains undermines labor protections and has significant implications for the protection of fundamental labor rights.

Recommended Citation

Ulla Liukkunen, Global Value Chains and Workers: Reconstructing an Epistemology for the Transnational Labor Question, 39 Emory Int'l L. Rev. 233 (2024).
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/eilr/vol39/iss1/6