The unfinished legal translation of global value chains: a critical review of Sustainability, due diligence, and value chain governance

This review essay critically examines Sustainability, Due Diligence, and Value Chain Governance through its central conceptual claim: that the global value chain, rather than the single company, should become the relevant unit of analysis for sustainability governance. It argues that the volume is most persuasive where it shows why the single-company-centred legal analysis is inadequate and where it foregrounds chain-wide coordination, distributed power, and the governance role of due diligence and contracts. At the same time, the review shows that this shift remains only partially translated into law, as domestic legal doctrines continue to operate through bilateral, territorially fragmented, and relationship-specific categories and fail to meaningfully recognize the inherently interconnected nature of global value chains. The volume’s contribution lies not in confirming that a fully developed new legal paradigm has already emerged, but in exposing the unfinished work of translating chain-based governance into legal doctrine and contractual practice.