German–British project wins premier research funding
A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg and the University of Edinburgh have received a significant grant from the German Research Foundation (the DFG) and the British Arts and Humanities Research Council (the AHRC) for the project Fashion’s PLACE – Private (International) Law and Circular Economy.
The grant supports outstanding German–British research in the arts and humanities. It is part of a bilateral program, jointly administered by the DFG and the AHRC, an arm of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). “Our study ‘Fashion’s PLACE’ is the first of its kind in this field and is of crucial practical and theoretical importance”, says Antonia Sommerfeld, senior research fellow at the Institute. Sommerfeld and Institute director Ralf Michaels are co-leading the German side of the project, which the grant will support for three years. “This funding will allow us to incorporate empirical, analytical, comparative, interdisciplinary and doctrinal approaches into our study. Moreover, it will enable us to engage with a broad international network of researchers and stakeholders for our research.”
The global fashion industry is facing significant challenges. Many of its practices are unsustainable. The situation is compounded by the current trend toward fast and ultra-fast fashion. The regenerative system of the circular economy offers the potential for a shift towards more sustainability. At the same time, the model promises economic benefits. “Our goal is to help rethink the law for a more circular future in global value chains. Our case study on the fashion industry will also enable us to lay the foundations for the legal framework required for a circular transformation and for the scaling of circular business models in other industries,” says Sommerfeld. “Private international law is central to the analysis: It coordinates the legal environment along the journey of textiles in global value chains – from the places of production, via the market places of consumption, to the places of disposal. Since private law also shapes the broader economy, our project is also examining private law’s fit for circularity beyond the fashion industry.”
Verónica Ruiz Abou-Nigm, Chair of Private International Law, and Michael Hennessy Picard, Lecturer in International Environmental Law, both at Edinburgh Law School, are the principal investigator (PI) and co-investigator (Co-I), respectively on the British side of the project. Ruiz Abou-Nigm and Sommerfeld have already collaborated on a ground-breaking legal analysis on designing circular business models in the international fashion industry. Their study received the 2024 José María Cervelló Business Law Prize, jointly awarded by IE Law School (Madrid) and the international law firm ONTIER. It demonstrated how private law and private international law instruments together can constitute the legal framework supporting a circularity transformation in global value chains.