讲座主题：Corporate Sustainability Law in Europe and China: Convergence, Divergence and the Future of Global Supply Chains

讲座人：Dr. Gonzalo Larrea

主持人：郭剑萍副教授

讲座时间：4月24日11：00-12:00

讲座地点：创新港5-2016

讲座简介：

This seminar explores how China and the European Union (EU) diverge in regulating corporate sustainability and the implications for economic operators involved in Sino-EU supply chains. While the strain that growing social, environmental, and economic pressures place on shared supply chains requires coordinated responses, domestic policy priorities are leading the two blocs to develop distinct regulatory approaches. The EU is adopting an expansive body of norms whose effects extend well-beyond its borders by imposing obligations, directly or indirectly, on foreign companies seeking access to the EU market. China, however, has adopted a strategic adaptive response, combining functional convergence with certain EU regulatory standards with descriptive divergence in others, as well as in market regulatory design and implementation.

The plurality of standards and obligations resulting from these diverging approaches, and their simultaneous application to the same supply chains, raises an important question: to what extent do the regulatory approaches of the EU and China diverge, and what are the implications for economic operators in Sino-EU supply chains? To address this question, the seminar provides a systematic overview and categorization of the evolving corporate sustainability frameworks of the EU and China through a taxonomical approach. On this basis, it distills the core elements, scope, nature, and legal structure of each system. It then compares these regimes, evaluates the degree of regulatory convergence or divergence between them, and assesses their implications for companies operating across both markets.

主讲人简介：

Gonzalo Larrea is an Assistant Professor at Utrecht University and a Visiting Fellow at Peking University. He specializes in international and EU law, with publications in leading journals (including, inter alia, Common Market Law Review, European Law Review, Climate Law, and Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law), and is the author of the bookClimate Funds and Sustainable Development: Who Pays in the End?(Palgrave Macmillan, 2024). He has held teaching and research positions at King’s College London, the European University Institute, ESSEC Business School, University Carlos III of Madrid, Pompeu Fabra University, and the University of Barcelona. Gonzalo is also a qualified lawyer and a member of the Barcelona Bar, and has extensive experience as an associate at a prominent international law firm.