Sustainability clauses in agricultural multi-party contracts

Abstract

In the agricultural value chain, companies and actors respond to the general sustainability agenda by inserting sustainability clauses into their contracts. In particular, sustainability issues and the diffusion of innovative sustainable practices in the value chain may be addressed through vertical and horizontal coordination. Therefore, examples of vertically and horizontally integrated multi-party contracts in the agricultural sector will be considered. To this end, it will be questioned whether modifications to general contract law are requested in order to give consideration to the multi-party structure of certain contractual arrangements which are used in the Global Value Chain (GVC), as well as to accommodate the need to implement sustainability standards. Consequently, the nature of sustainability clauses in multi- party contracts, as well as the legal issues which arise from the enforcement of sustainability clauses, will be analysed.