Codes of conduct are the main tools to privately regulate worker rights in global value chains. Scholars have shown that while codes may improve outcome standards (such as occupational health and safety), they have had limited impact on process rights (such as freedom of association and...

The garment industry can be considered an archetypal global sector in which production processes have been transnationalized since the late 1960s. The possibility of fragmenting and outsourcing production across a spatially dispersed network of manufacturers has "freed" lead companies from...