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THEORISING THE LOCAL ADAPTATION OF TRANSNATIONAL CERTIFICATION STANDARDS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 November 2021

John Gillespie  and
Ha H Do
John Gillespie
Affiliation:
Professor of Law, Monash University, [email protected].
Ha H Do
Affiliation:
Post-Doctoral Research Associate, The University of Oxford China Centre, [email protected].
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Abstract

Over the last three decades, transnational certification standards have proliferated to fill perceived ‘governance gaps’ in developing countries. Transnational non-governmental organisations and private standards-setting agencies have developed standards that cover a vast range of areas such as labour rights, social justice and environmental protection. As a form of private transnational regulation, certification standards travel through transnational production networks that link lead firms in developed countries with supplier firms in developing countries. This article draws on a case study about coffee certification to challenge the conventional understanding of transnational certification as a contractual conduit that transfers encoded certification standards from senders to receivers. It shows how transnational certification standards interact with, and remake local regulatory landscapes as they pass through. This interaction between global and local knowledge compels us to see transnational standards as a protean, highly localised regulatory process rather than stable universal norms. The article concludes that transnational certification does not function like an integrated ‘joined-up’ process and it is better understood as a mode of polycentric regulation that decentres and fragments transnational norms and standards.

Keywords

comparative lawhuman rightsenvironmentsupply chainssocio-legal theory
Type
Articles
Information
International & Comparative Law Quarterly , Volume 71 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 37 - 71
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press for the British Institute of International and Comparative Law

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41 Giang et al. (n 13).

42 D Gaitán-Cremaschi et al., ‘Assessing the Sustainability Performance of Coffee Farms in Vietnam: A Social Profit Inefficiency Approach’ (2018) 10 Sustainability 4227; Giang et al. (n 13).

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44 T Van Dijk, Discourse and Knowledge: A Sociocognitive Approach (Cambridge University Press 2014).

45 Owens et al. (n 40).

46 See B Choudhury, ‘Balancing Soft and Hard Law for Business and Human Rights’ (2018) 67 ICLQ 961; Ruggie (n 3).

47 Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (n 15).

48 G Auld, Constructing Private Governance: The Rise and Evolution of Forest, Coffee, and Fisheries Certification (Yale University Press 2014); LT Raynolds, ‘Mainstreaming Fair Trade Coffee: From Partnership to Traceability’ (2009) 37 World Development 1083.

49 ibid.

50 Many global certification schemes aim to protect the environment and indigenous rights. See T Bartley, Rules without Rights: Land, Labor, and Private Authority in the Global Economy (Oxford University Press 2018).

51 Auld (n 48).

52 S Manning and O von Hagen, ‘Linking Local Experiments to Global Standards: How Project Networks Promote Global Institution-Building’ (2010) 26 Scandinavian Journal of Management 398.

53 Ruggie (n 3).

54 4C certification sets lower standards than UTZ and Rainforest Alliance. See Dietz et al. (n 14).

55 D Boselie, ‘The True Price of Coffee from Vietnam’ True Price and Sustainable Trade Initiative (Sustainable Trade Initiative 2016) <https://trueprice.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/TP-Coffee.pdf>.

56 Global Coffee Platform, ‘Baseline Common Code’ (2016) <https://archive.globalcoffeeplatform.org/assets/files/GCP_Doc_01_Baseline-Common-Code_v2.1_en.pdf>. (Baseline Common Code 2016). Also see Manning and von Hagen (n 52) 401–13.

57 Baseline Common Code 2016 (n 56) Principle 1.2–1.8 at 9–15.

58 Pesticide Action Network (PAN 2021) <http://www.panna.org>.

59 4C environmental standards govern biodiversity, soil fertility, and carbon dioxide mitigation. See Baseline Common Code 2016 (n 56) Principles P2.1–2.9 and 3.2–3.9. See generally Manning and von Hagen (n 52).

60 Baseline Common Code 2016 (n 56) Principle 2.1–2.9 at 16–21.

61 See eg J Short et al., ‘Improving Working Conditions in Global Supply Chains: The Role of Institutional Environments and Monitoring Program Design’ (2020) 73 ILR Review 873.

62 See TH Yen, ‘Vietnam’ in S Chesterman et al., (eds), The Oxford Handbook of International Law in Asia and the Pacific (Oxford University Press 2019).

63 VC Trịnh, Vai Trò Giám Sát Của Quốc Hội Việt Nam Trong Quá Trình Đàm Phán, Ký Kết, Gia Nhập và Các Thực Hiện Điều Ước Quốc Tế [The Supervisory Role of the National Assembly of Vietnam in the Process of Negotiating, Signing, Joining and Implementing International Treaties] (Đại Học Quốc Gia 2013).

64 See P Ortmann, Environmental Governance in Vietnam: Institutional Reforms and Failures (Palgrave Macmillan 2017); P Meyfroidt et al., ‘Trajectories of Deforestation, Coffee Expansion and Displacement of Shifting Cultivation in the Central Highlands of Vietnam’ (2013) 23 Global Environmental Change 1187.

65 Choudhury (n 46); Ruggie (n 3).

66 Giang et al. (n 13) 3–4; Manning and von Hagen (n 52).

67 G LeBaron and J Lister, ‘Benchmarking Global Supply Chain: The Power of the “Ethical Audit” Regime’ (2015) 41 Review of International Studies 905.

68 M Kuit et al., ‘The Sustainable Coffee Conundrum: A Study into the Effects, Cost and Benefits of Implementation Modalities of Sustainable Coffee Production in Vietnam’ (Kuit Consultancy 2013); Giang et al. (n 13).

69 Dietz et al. (n 14).

70 See T Moustafa, ‘Law and Courts in Authoritarian Regimes’ (2014) 10 Annual Review of Law and Social Science 281.

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72 M Gainsborough, ‘Privatisation as State Advance: Private Indirect Government in Vietnam’ (2009) 14 New Political Economy 257, 265–7.

73 Ủy Ban Nhân Dân Tỉnh Đắk Lắk, Phát Triển Cà Phê Bền Vững Tỉnh Đắk Lắk Đến Năm 2020 và Định Hướng Đến Năm 2030 ban hành kèm theo Quyết định số 2811/QĐ-UBND ngày 10/10/2017 của Ủy Ban Nhân Dân Tỉnh (Đắk Lắk People's Committee, Developing Sustainable Coffee in Dak Lac Province to 2020 and Orientation to 2030 issued in conjunction with Decision No 2811 / QD-UBND October 10, 2017 Provincial People's Committee).

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76 See generally, B Kerkvliet, Speaking Out in Vietnam (Cornell University Press 2019).

77 See C Thayer ‘Vietnam and the Challenge of Political Civil Society’ (2009) 31 Contemporary Southeast Asia 1.

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79 Giovannucci et al. (n 74) 16.

80 Interview with Mr Kiên, Nestlé regional manager (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 1 December 2017).

81 ‘The Nestlé Policy on Environmental Sustainability’ (Nestlé, Mandatory Policy February 2013) 2.

82 ‘The Nestlé Commitment on Land & Land Rights in Agricultural Supply Chains’ (Nestlé, Mandatory Policy July 2014) 2.

83 Interview with Mr Kiên, Nestlé regional manager (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 25 February 2018).

84 J Grabs ‘The Rise of Buyer-Driven Sustainability Governance: Emerging Trends in the Global Coffee Sector’ (Social Science Research Network 2017).

85 Shaffer (n 33) 254.

86 Three of the four Nestlé group leaders interviewed were party-State officials at the grassroots level: Mr Đat (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 9 November 2018); Ms Nga (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 9 November 2018); Mr Tuệ (Cư M'gar, Đăk Lăk, 4 March 2019).

87 Interview with Mr Thuyết, Néstle staff (Đăk Lăk, 13 April 2021).

88 Interview with Mr Thắng, coffee producer (Krông Năng, Đăk Lăk, 23 February 2018).

89 Interviews Mr Trường (Buôn Hồ, Đăk Lăk, 21 February 2018); Mr Cảnh, coffee producer (Cư M'gar, Đăk Lăk, 22 February 2018); Mr Thắng, coffee producer (Krông Năng, Đăk Lăk, 23 February 2018); Ms H'Xíu, coffee producer (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 26 June 2018).

90 Interview with Mr Trung, manager, Simexco (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 4 December 2017).

91 Interview with Mr Huân, manager (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 28 November 2017).

92 J Hughes, ‘Lost in Translation: Communities of Practice – The Journey from Academic Model to Practitioner Tool’ in J Hughes et al. (eds), Communities of Practice: Critical Perspectives (Routledge 2007) 30–40; Wenger (n 19).

93 ibid.

94 Interview with Mr Kiên, Néstle manager (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 25 February 2018).

95 Teubner, ‘Legal Pluralism as a Form of Structural Coupling’ (n 32).

96 Developing Sustainable Coffee in Dak Lac Province to 2020 and Orientation to 2030 (n 73).

97 Baseline Common Code 2016 (n 56) Principle 1.7 at 17.

98 Interview with Mr Dũng, group leader (Cư M'gar, Đăk Lăk, 4 March 2019).

99 ibid.

100 Kuit et al. (n 68) 87.

101 Interview with Mr Huân, manager (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 28 Nov 2017).

102 Baseline Common Code 2016 (n 56) Unacceptable Practice 7, at 38.

103 Ortmann (n 64); Meyfroidt et al. (n 64).

104 Interview with Mr Anh, Simexco staff member with experience working on coffee certification programmes (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 1 April 2021).

105 Kuit et al. (n 68) 72.

106 Baseline Common Code 2016 (n 56) Unacceptable Practice 4, at 37.

107 See A Hardy, Red Hills: Migrants and the State in the Highlands of Vietnam (NAIS Press 2003); O Salemink, ‘Revolutionary and Christian Ecumenes and Desire for Modernity in the Vietnamese Highlands’ (2015) 16 Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 388, 388–409.

108 ibid.

109 See G Evans, ‘Internal Colonialism in the Central Highlands of Vietnam’ (2018) 33(S) Sojourn 30.

110 Hardy (n 107).

111 Salemink (n 107) 388–409.

112 H Ly and Y Tao, ‘Binh yen cho vung dat Tay Nguyen’ [Peace for the Central Highland] (Nhan Dan Dien Tu , 8 August 2015) <http://www.nhandan.com.vn/phongsu/item/27198202-binh-yen-cho-vung-dat-tay-nguyen.html>. See generally J Gillespie and HTQ Tran, ‘Legal Pluralism and the Struggle for Customary Law in the Vietnamese Highlands’ (2021) 69 AmJCompL (forthcoming).

113 Giovannucci et al. (n 74).

114 ‘The Nestlé Commitment on Land & Land Rights in Agricultural Supply Chains’ (Nestlé, Mandatory Policy July 2014) 2.

115 Interviews with Mr Anh, Simexco staff member (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 1 April 2021); Ms Liên, group leader and head of commune Farmers Association (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 25 June 2018); Ms Hoa, coffee producer (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 25 June 2018); Ms H'Xíu, coffee producer (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 26 June 2018).

116 Developing Sustainable Coffee in Dak Lac Province to 2020 and Orientation to 2030 (n 73).

117 Gillespie and Tran (n 112).

118 Meyfroidt et al. (n 64) 1196.

119 Hanks (n 38).

120 Interview with Ms Diệu, Thắng Lợi Coffee, manager (Krông Păk, Đăk Lăk, 1 Dec 2017).

121 Interviews with Ms Hoa, Simexco coffee producer (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, June 2018); Mr Tình, Simexco coffee producer (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 26 June 2018); Ms Hạ, Néstle coffee producer (Cư M'gar, Đăk Lăk, 4 March 2019).

122 Giovannucci et al. (n 74).

123 Interviews with Ms Hoa, Simexco coffee producer (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, June 2018); Mr Tình, Simexco coffee producer (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 26 June 2018); Ms Hạ, Néstle coffee producer (Cư M'gar, Đăk Lăk, 4 March 2019).

124 Hanks (n 38).

125 Owens et al. (n 40); Brubaker et al. (n 40).

126 JR Eidson et al., ‘From Identification to Framing and Alignment: A New Approach to the Comparative Analysis of Collective Identities’ (2017) 58 Current Anthropology 340.

127 Other studies about coffee networks in Vietnam have reached similar conclusions. See eg Kuit et al. (n 68).

128 Interview with Mr Thắng, coffee producer (Krông Năng, Đăk Lăk, 23 February 2018).

129 Interview with Ms Liên, Farmers Association (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 25 June 2018).

130 Interview with Ms Hoa, coffee producer (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 25 June 2018).

131 Interviews with Ms Liên, Farmers Association (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 25 June 2018); H'Xíu, Ede farmer (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 26 June 2018) and Y Lương, Ede farmer (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 27 June 2018). Confirmed that poor Vietnamese language skills hindered knowledge transfers.

132 N Århem and NTT Binh, A Social-Cultural Assessment of the Indigenous Population along the Ho Chi Minh Highway in Central Truong Son, Viet Nam (WWF Indochina 2007).

133 Interviews with Ms Hoa, coffee producer (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 25 June 2018); Mr Tình, coffee producer (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 26 June 2018); Ms Hạ, coffee producer (Cư M'gar, Đăk Lăk, 4 March 2019).

134 Interview with Mr Minh, 4C Auditor (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 27 November 2017).

135 Interview with Mr Thắng, coffee producer (Krông Năng, Đăk Lăk, 23 February 2018).

136 Kuit et al. (n 68) 44.

137 See Manning and von Hagen (n 52).

138 Interview with Mr Đông, senior manager, transnational coffee company (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 28 Nov 2017).

139 Interview with Mr Kiên, Néstle manager (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 25 February 2018).

140 Interview with Mr Minh, Auditor (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 27 November 2017).

141 Owens et al. (n 40).

142 Interview with Mr Thuyết (Đăk Lăk, 13 April 2021).

143 Ortmann (n 64); J Gillespie et al., ‘From “Weak” to “Strong” Sustainability: Protesting for Environmental Justice in Vietnam’ (2019) 14 Journal of Vietnamese Studies 1.

144 Interview with Minh, Auditor (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 27 November 2017).

145 Kuit et al. (n 68) 66.

146 Baseline Common Code 2016 (n 56) Unacceptable Practice 4, at 37.

147 Hardy (n 107); Meyfroidt et al. (n 64).

148 J Michaud, Historical Dictionary of Peoples of the Southeast Asian Massif (Scarecrow Press 2006).

149 Interview with Y Nha, Ede coffee producer (Cư M'gar, Đăk Lăk, 5 March 2019).

150 Interview with Ms Nga, Néstle group leader (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 9 November 2018).

151 J Gibson, ‘Group Identities and Theories of Justice: An Experimental Investigation into the Justice and Injustice of Land Squatting in South Africa’ (2008) 70 Journal of Politics 700, 702–3.

152 A study found that global coffee certification in Vietnam has not prevented the displacement of indigenous landowners. See Meyfroidt et al. (n 64) 1196.

153 McGinnis and Ostrom (n 26).

154 Teubner, ‘Legal Irritants: How Unifying Law Ends up in New Divergences’ (n 31).

155 F Selnes and J Sallis, ‘Promoting Relationship Learning’ (2003) 67 Journal of Marketing 80.

156 CJ Chen, ‘The Effects of Knowledge Attribute, Alliance, Characteristics, and Absorptive Capacity on Knowledge Transfer Performance’ (2004) 34 R&D Management 311; Abbott et al. (n 32).

157 For a discussion about culture-spanning intermediaries, see L Benton, Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History 1400–1900 (Cambridge University Press 2002) 3–9.

158 See N Beech et al., ‘Learning from Difference and Similarity: Identities and Relational Reflexive Learning’ (2021) 52 Management Learning 393.

159 Interviews with Mr Thắng, coffee producer (Krông Năng, Đăk Lăk, 23 February 2018); Ms Liên, coffee producer (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 25 June 2018); Ms Nga, coffee producer (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 9 November 2018).

160 Owens et al. (n 40).

161 See Salemink (n 107) 388–409; Evans (n 109).

162 See Walzer, M, Thick and Thin: Moral Argument at Home and Abroad (University of Notre Dame Press 1994) 10–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Also see Riles, A, Collateral Knowledge: Legal Reasoning in the Global Financial Markets (University of Chicago Press 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

163 Rorty, R, ‘Justice as a Larger Loyalty’ (1997) 4 Ethical Perspectives 139, 141CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

164 See Polanyi, K, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Times 61 (2nd edn, Beacon Press 2001) 61Google Scholar.

165 Rorty, ‘Justice as a Larger Loyalty’ (n 163) 12.

166 See Henrich, J, The Weirdest People in the World (Allen and Lane 2020) 297–305Google Scholar; Luhmann, N, Observations on Modernity (W Whobrey trans, Stanford University Press 1998) 80–5Google Scholar.

167 Rorty, R, ‘Response to Habermas’ in Brandom, RB (ed), Rorty and His Critics (Wiley 2000) 56, 64Google Scholar.

168 ibid.

169 See generally Henrich (n 166) 297–305.

170 P To et al., ‘Moral Economies and Markets: ‘‘Insider’’ Cassava Trading in Kon Tum, Vietnam’ (2016) 57 Asia Pacific Viewpoint 168.

171 See Glenn, P, ‘Cosmopolitan Legal Orders’ in Halpin, A and Roeben, V (eds), Theorising the Global Legal Order (Hart 2009) 33Google Scholar.

172 See eg Eberlein et al. (n 3); Bartley, ‘Transnational Governance as the Layering of Rules: Intersections of Public and Private Standards’ (n 2).

173 Interviews with Mr Vinh, Đăk Lăk Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 22 September 2020); Mr Đông, senior staff transnational coffee company (Buôn Ma Thuột, Đăk Lăk, 28 November 2017). Also see Developing Sustainable Coffee in Dak Lac Province to 2020 and Orientation to 2030 (n 73).

174 Kerkvliet (n 76); Gillespie et al. (n 143).

175 M Ibna et al., ‘Certification and Farmer Organisation: Indonesian Smallholder Perceptions of Benefits’ (2018) 54 Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies 387.

176 Ruben, R and Zuniga, G, ‘How Standards Compete: Comparative Impact of Coffee Certification Schemes in Northern Nicaragua’ (2011) 16 Supply Chain Management: An International Journal 98CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

177 Gillespie, J and Quang, NH ‘Between Authoritarian Governance and Urban Citizenship: Tree-Felling Protests in Hanoi’ (2019) 56 Urban Studies 977CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

178 Salemink (n 107); Gillespie and Tran (n 112).

179 The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights 2011 presuppose the conduit model of transnational norm diffusion. See Ruggie (n 3).

180 McGinnis and Ostrom (n 26) 15.

181 For a discussion about the need to reinforce global interpretations of human rights conventions, see Partiti (n 26).

182 Halliday, T and Shaffer, G, ‘Transnational Legal Orders’ in Halliday, T and Shaffer, G (eds), Transnational Legal Orders (Cambridge University Press 2015) 5–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

183 J Zeitlin and C Overdevest, ‘Experimentalist Interactions: Joining up the Transnational Timber Legality Regime’ (2020) Regulation & Governance <https://doi:10.1111/rego.12350>.

184 In this respect, coffee certification resembles trends in the transnational legal order. See N McDonald, ‘The Role of Due Diligence in International Law’ (2019) 68 ICLQ 1041.

185 Zeitlin and Overdevest (n 183).

186 Halliday and Shaffer (n 182).

187 Aligica, P and Tarko, V ‘Polycentricity: From Polanyi to Ostrom and Beyond’ (2012) 25 Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions 237CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McGinnis and Ostrom (n 26).

188 Partiti (n 26).

189 See generally Auld (n 48); Bartley, Rules without Rights: Land, Labor, and Private Authority in the Global Economy (n 50).

190 McGinnis and Ostrom (n 26); Partiti (n 26).

191 Sarfaty (n 7); Bernstein and Cashore (n 4).

192 ibid.

193 There is vast literature but see Auld (n 48); Bartley, Rules without Rights: Land, Labor, and Private Authority in the Global Economy (n 50).

194 See generally Short et al. (n 61).

195 ibid.

196 Benton (n 157) 3–9.

197 Ibna et al. (n 175).

198 See Halliday and Shaffer (n 182).

199 See Teubner, ‘Self Constitutionalizing TNCs?: On the Linkage of “Private” and “Public” Corporate Codes of Conduct’ (n 31).