Panel „Regulatory Challenges and Gaps for Global Supply and Value Chains“

Members of the HWR Competence Center present research at the ECPR Conference in Berlin

The Biennial Conference of our Standing Group on Regulatory Governance, held at the Hertie School of Governance from June 11 to June 13, 2025, in Berlin, stands as Europe’s premier interdisciplinary gathering focused on regulation and regulatory governance and aims to foster discussion and further developments with an international scientific community. This year’s theme, “Beyond the regulatory state?”, examined the legitimacy of regulatory systems amidst global (geo-) political, economic, and technological transformations. The conference also revisited Giandomenico Majone’s (1994) seminal work on the regulatory state in light of recent developments.

Keynote speeches were held by Arancha González, Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po and former Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as Prof. Dr. Michael Zürn, Director of the Global Governance Unit at WZB Berlin and Professor of International Relations at Freie Universität Berlin.

Prof. Dr. Christina Teipen, Principal Investigator Cluster B, reflected on Zürns’s contribution: “Prof. Dr. Michael Zürn made the striking observation that the number of non-majoritarian agencies has continued to grow, while state expenditures have decreased. The “normative criticism of the regulatory state” could possibly be countered with more public spending on public infrastructure.”

The Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin) was represented by members of the newly established DFG-funded Research Competence Centre Challenges and Resilience of Global Supply and Value Chains and hosted a panel titled “Regulatory Challenges and Gaps for Global Supply and Value Chains”, moderated by Prof. Dr. Hartmut Aden and Prof. Dr. Christina Teipen. The panel featured interdisciplinary research from political science, political economy, sociology, criminology, and legal studies, focusing on new and evolving forms of regulation, as well as persistent gaps and challenges.

In addition, HWR Berlin scholars contributed to the panel on “The Politics of Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence: Policy Development and Contestations in a Shifting (Geo)Political Landscape”.

Christina Teipen and Helena Gräf gave a presentation on “Asymmetric North-South State Capabilities: Industrial Policies in the Automotive Global Value Chains”. Related publications:

Gräf, H. (2024). A Regulatory‐Developmental Turn Within EU Industrial Policy? The Case of the Battery IPCEIs’, Politics and Governance, 12. https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.8188

Jha, P., Herr, H., De Conti, B., Teipen, C., Gräf, H. (2025). Industrial Trajectories in the Brazilian and Indian Auto Sectors. In: Krzywdzinski, M., Lechowski, G., Humphrey, J., Pardi, T. (eds) Global Shifts in the Automotive Sector. Palgrave Studies of Internationalization in Emerging Markets. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-80641-4_10

Artemisa Ljarja and Stefanie Lorenzen presented on the topic of “Can Due Diligence Laws Payout for Workers? – Effects of Regulation Design and Contextual Factors for the Indian Apparel Industry”.
Hartmut Aden, Matthias Kötter and Jelena Hoffmann [add website link in final report] talked about “Establishing New Complaints Mechanisms for Supply Chain Due Diligence”.
Tamara Dangelmaier presented her work co-authored with Daniela Hunold on “Protests, Police and Resilience in Global Supply Chains – A Sociological Perspective”.
Christian Hilpert spoke about his joint work with Mischa Hansel and Vincenz Leuschner on the “Political discourse and regulatory challenges of threats to supply chains in the wake of the Russian attack on Ukraine”.
Markus Schultze-Kraft discussed his work, on the topic “Beyond regulation? Opacity in global value chains”.

Overall, the conference provided a stimulating environment for scholarly exchange and offered numerous opportunities for future cooperation, especially for early career researchers.

“The conference was very inspiring and provided a great opportunity to present own work, learn about most current research, and to initiate new professional ties”, Tamara Dangelmaier, Helena Gräf, and Jelena Hoffmann.