Adjusting the North-South Balance: Southern Judicial Boldness and its Implications for the Regulation of Global Supply Chains

Abstract

Modern regulators have long grappled with the challenges of regulating multinational corporations and their cross-border supply chains. There is a tendency, in this context, to view the problem as one where the most serious or common abuses are to be found in the Global South, but the effective remedies mostly need to be found in the Global North. This article discusses recent examples of expansive, creative judicial activity from India, Colombia and the African regional judicial system to challenge this assumption. Some of today’s Southern judicial activity can break the stereotype in interesting and important ways, and our thinking about regulation in this context needs adjustment accordingly.