Abstract
In June 2023, the European Union (EU) introduced the EU Deforestation-Free Products Regulation (EUDR) with the aim to reduce the EU's contribution to global deforestation and forest degradation by securing 'deforestation-free supply chains' of seven commodities being imported from outside the EU or exported to third countries. Operators and traders were given 18 months to implement the regulation, with its requirements entering into force on 30 December 2024. Hence, in the forthcoming years, all actors involved in its implementation will have to grasp and address the complex interactions within global value chains and the related socio-legal dynamics, leaving considerable space for interpretation, adaptation and redefinition. The research project contributes in a unique and timely manner to the fields of business and human rights and critical legal studies on commodity chains. It does so by researching and connecting jurisdictions at two extremes of the coffee and soy value chains, and enriching the traditional legal approach with the empirical analysis of how telecoupling dynamics materialise in these chains that link Brazil and Belgium. In particular, the project will collect new and currently unavailable knowledge on: a) the implementation of the EUDR in Belgium; b) the resulting changes in socio-legal territorial dynamics in Brazil; and c) on the opening (or not) of new legal spaces for corporate intra-value chain accountability.
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