[Spring academy] Technologies of sustainability due diligence: Digital tools and global value chain regulations

Develop a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities and challenges in using digital technologies in the framework of the corporate sustainability due diligence process.

A front-runner academy on sustainability due diligence
Since 2019, the Asser Institute offers a week-long academy on the theory and practice of sustainability due diligence as master key to responsible business conduct. The academy features expert lectures from academics in the field and practical sessions led by experienced practitioners from both the private and public sectors. Over the past five editions we have trained more than 100 participants from all around the world, who are contributing in the public and private sector to the implementation of the sustainability due diligence revolution. In 2024, we’re offering a newly developed edition of the spring academy dedicated to the technologies of sustainability due diligence. Practitioners and academics will critically reflect on the role of digital technologies in the governance of global value chains through the sustainability due diligence process.

Increased integration of technologies in due diligence process
Large European companies are increasingly subjected to a legislative mandate to conduct sustainability due diligence to ensure that their activities are not linked to adverse human rights or environmental impacts. After the EU’s biggest economies, France and Germany, it is now the European Union, which stands at the cusp of adopting an EU-wide sustainability due diligence mandate, which would apply also to some non-EU based companies.

Meanwhile, in recent years we have seen many companies integrating digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, data mining, blockchain, digital survey tools, to fulfil their obligation to implement a sustainability due diligence process. The Asser Institute, with its report commissioned by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on big data technologies and sustainability due diligence, has been at the forefront of engaging with these developments. Building on our research in this area, the spring academy will gather leading academic thinkers and cutting-edge technological entrepreneurs to equip our participants with the necessary theoretical and practical skills to navigate and critically engage with the growing practical role of digital technologies in the implementation of the due diligence process and the regulation of global value chains.

Concretely, the training will blend theory and practice through a combination of lectures delivered by academics and workshops with practitioners aimed at explaining the function and functioning of specific technological solutions in the context of the due diligence process.

Download the latest version of the full programme

Confirmed speakers:

• Antoine Duval (Senior researcher, Asser Institute)
• Klaas Eller (Assistant professor at the ACT, University of Amsterdam)
• Anna Beckers (Professor, Maastricht University)
• Galit Sarfaty (Associate professor, University of Toronto) [Online]
• Antoine Heuty (CEO, Ulula)
• Nanne Tolsma (Business development director, Satelligence)
• Lucas Pennanen (Account executive, Prewave)
• Michelle Westermann-Behaylo (University of Amsterdam, Business School)
• Sebastian Rünz (Taylor Wessing, Düsseldorf Office)
• Lea Esterhuizen (CEO, &Wider)
• Nick Heine (Chief Operating Officer, IntegrityNext)
• Leon Riedel (Levin Sources)
• Robert Bwana (University of Amsterdam) 
• Martin Curley (Katalyst Initiative)
• Luc Fransen (University of Amsterdam)
• Rashad Abelson (Tech Sector Lead, OECD Center for Responsible Business)
• Larry Catá Backer (Penn State Law)
• Markus Löning (Löning - Human Rights & Responsible Business)
• Hannah Lennett (Open Supply Hub)
• James Crowley (Cascale)

Scholarships
Five fee waivers are available to outstanding master students and PhD candidates to attend the upcoming spring academy. The application deadline is 20th March 2024. For more information on the scholarships and how to apply click here.

Watch the course video:

Registration
Please ensure to carefully read the Terms and Conditions before registering.

Coordinators
Antoine Duval
Dr Antoine Duval is a senior researcher at the Asser Institute, and the coordinator for the research strand on transnational public interests: constituting public interest beyond and below the state. He is also the founder and editor-in-chief of the ASSER International Sports Law Blog, founder and editor of the Yearbook of International Sports Arbitration, and a member of the editorial board of the International Sports Law Journal and International Sports Law book Series of Asser Press.

Klaas Hendrik Eller
Dr Klaas Hendrik Eller is an Assistant Professor at the Amsterdam Center for Transformative Private Law (ACT) and affiliated with the Sustainable Global Economic Law (SGEL) research project. 

His research interests are centred around the role of (private) law in social and technological change, particularly through an angle of contract and economic law, alongside comparative and international private law as well as human rights. He is a co-editor-in-chief of the German Law Journal, and editor of Kritische Justiz, and a member of the Amsterdam Young Academy (AYA). He was a Doctoral Fellow at Humboldt-University’s European Law School Graduate Program, held fellowships at both Tel Aviv University's and Harvard University's Safra Center for Ethics, was a Visiting Researcher at the Institute for Global Law and Policy (IGLP, Harvard Law School) and a Visiting Professor at Tel Aviv University.