Fashion’s PLACE – Private (International) Law and Circular Economy

Our economy is structured in a linear way, beginning with the extraction of resources and ending with waste. Such linearity is unsustainable – it exists at the expense of the environment and global justice. On the input side, the linear economy (LE) relies on natural resources – energy, water, raw materials – that are scarce. On the output side, our economy of consumption, destruction, and ever-faster renewal creates accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere and growing piles of solid waste and landfills across the globe. Amongst the most promising responses lies the shift to a circular economy (CE). CE creates a loop between input and output by turning the latter into the former – either by maintaining or improving the usefulness of goods instead of discarding them (repair, upcycling, etc.), or by turning such wasted goods into resources (recycling). Law is crucial for such a shift, yet its role remain under-researched. Particularly, private international law (PIL), the law that determines jurisdiction in cross-border cases, their applicable law, and the recognition and enforcement of foreign decisions. Private law (PL) institutions – property, contract, employment and consumer law – shape the LE from creation to waste; PIL gives these institutions cross-border effects. PIL is tied to, and reinforces, the power imbalances of the LE within which it developed. Fast fashion (FF) provides a highly relevant case study to examine PIL threads in the LE and its rethinking for the just transition to CE. Many current practices in the global fashion industry are highly unsustainable. Fast- and ultra-fast fashion exacerbate these problems because of its super-rapid inventory turnover, low-quality goods, manufactured in countries with low wages and weak regulatory frameworks leaving workers and the environment unprotected. There is near consensus that transformation is needed. Circular economy (CE) models appear to have potential for the sector to foster sustainability without eliminating economic gains. They have started to gain traction on political agendas, industry practices, and regulatory frameworks. Pioneering CE business models in the fashion industry spanning from small local business in the Global South and the Global North to large global enterprises have shown the feasibility of such circularity for the industry. This project provides an analysis of the legal landscape for such a circularity transition. It explores the PL and PIL components of global value chains (GVCs) along the journey of textiles – from the places of production, via the marketplaces of consumption, to the places of disposal. FF relies on complex and fragmented GVCs. These GVCs span several countries and continents, economies and legal systems. The proposed study is the first of its kind in this field of crucial practical and theoretical importance. It builds on earlier studies of the PIs and Co-Is. Michaels/Ruiz Abou-Nigm/van Loon (eds.) (2021) established the role of PIL for sustainable development, including sustainable consumption and production. Ruiz Abou-Nigm and Sommerfeld (2024) provided the first in-depth analysis of circular fashion and legal design. Integrating empirical, analytical, comparative, interdisciplinary and doctrinal approaches, the study will provide a diagnosis of the PL/PIL impact on the fashion industry to contribute to a prognosis towards a more sustainable future for GVCs. This, in turn, will enable transformative rethinking of PL and PIL to enable the just transition to CE models.