Supply Chains in International Business Practices: Legal Characteristics

Abstract

Over two thirds of world trade and production is carried out by multinational corporations and takes place in cross-border supply chains (global value chains). This figure reflects the scale and vastness of the geography of distribution of such systems. Global (cross-border) supply chains have attracted close attention from business and political circles, academic economists and sociologists. However, legal scholars have remained aloof from such debates. The paper is the first to integrate the concept of cross-border supply chains (global value chains) into domestic legal science. From a legal point of view, the supply chain is a multi-level (modular) system of contracts subordinated to a single goal and designed to centralize, organize and coordinate the management of the flow of production, supplies and services in the international business environment. An important feature of such contractual systems is their role as an intermediary in the dissemination of foreign legal norms, norms of non-state regulation, private standards and in the legitimization of socially significant attitudes.