Legal Foundation of Contractual Relations Regulation in Cross-Border Supply Chains

Abstract

Global value chains (supply chains) have attracted close attention of representatives of the scientific, business and political circles. Foreign scholars and researchers have convincingly proved that the global value chain is an independent object for study in international commercial law.In recent years, the leading European legal systems have strengthened the protection of the most vulnerable participants in cross-border relations: workers, other individuals affected by the negative impact of global supply flows. In France, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, as well as at the supranational level in the EU, legislation regulating supply chains is developing. By assigning responsibility to large corporations for cross border violations committed in chains coordinated by them, foreign law is focused on solving socially significant tasks.From a legal point of view, the supply chain is a complex, multi-level system of contracts subordinated to a uniform economic goal. The dominant legal regulation of private relations within supply chains has a non-state origin and is formed by private entities, mainly large multinational corporations. To explain the legal effect of such global regulatory systems, the paper introduces the concept of a «transnational legal order» based on the mechanisms of private law. The transnational legal order, along with the formation of binding (contractual) ties between entities, plays a unifying — organizing and coordinating — role in supply chains. In addition, it creates a platform for the international dissemination of national norms of law, as well as «voluntary» standards and rules formulated in private, social and ethical practices that are not initially endowed with legal force. The contractual form of consolidation contributes to their legitimization. The paper justifies the emergence of a new direction of research in the framework of international commercial law — transnational supply chain law.The trends in the development of international commercial law include digitalization, environmentalization, socialization, industry fragmentation and extraterritoriality of regulation.