CELS Lunchtime Seminar: 'The Bangladesh Sustainability Compact as 'Global Experimentalist Governance''

Professor Jeffrey Kenner and Katrina Peake (Nottingham University) will give a CELS lunchtime seminar - "The Bangladesh Sustainability Compact as 'Global Experimentalist Governance'".

Fatal industrial disasters within the Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry in Bangladesh, such as the 2013 Rana Plaza garment factory collapse, have focused international attention on the linkage between trade and labour rights. They prompted the EU to conclude an unprecedented soft-law initiative: The Bangladesh Sustainability Compact. The uniqueness of the Compact stems from its nature as a form of ‘global experimentalist governance’ (de Búrca, Keohane and Sabel). Indeed, the Compact fits its key characteristics. For example, it lays down a process for participation and multilevel governance including actors such as the ILO, EU, Bangladesh, trade union and employer organisations. Additionally, the Compact has open-ended goals, its ultimate objective being to promote continuous improvement in labour rights and factory safety within the RMG industry. These goals have allowed scope for contextually situated actors within Bangladesh such as key trade union and employer organisations to contribute to meeting the Compact’s objectives. The Compact, being primarily an EU-led initiative, is also underpinned by the ‘penalty default’ of the possibility of withdrawing trade preferences granted under the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP). This seminar will examine the features and effectiveness of the Compact as a form of global experimentalist governance within the context of the EU’s trade-labour linkage.

The talk will take place at 1:05pm – 1:55pm in lecture room B16, Faculty of Law.
A sandwich lunch is provided at 12:45pm.
There is no charge for lunch or to attend the seminar.

Enquiries to: cels@law.cam.ac.uk