Opening Event for the Academic Year 2025/26
2025-10-16
The Opening of the 2025/26 Academic Year at the Joachim Herz Doctoral School was marked by events on global value chains.
The day began with a seminar by Dr Caroline Lichuma from the Centre for Human Rights at Friedrich-Alexander University Nuremberg-Erlangen. Dr Lichuma demonstrated how TWAIL (Third World Approaches to International Law) can shed new light on global value chains (cf. here). Dr Lichuma's contribution thus offered an academic perspective on the topic, emphasising the importance of considering the interests and concerns of the Global South in the legal governance and management of global value chains.
In the afternoon, this perspective was supplemented by contributions from civil society and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). During a discussion on critical and strategic raw materials and their corresponding value chains, Dr Christina Saulich (BMZ) and Meike Schulze (German Institute for International and Security Affairs, SWP) shared their insights. The two speakers focused particularly on the global challenges currently facing Germany and Europe in this area. These challenges are not only of crucial importance for the implementation of the green transition, but also have significant economic consequences.
We would like to express our sincere thanks to all three speakers for their contributions. The variety of perspectives ensured the topic was examined from multiple angles, providing a more comprehensive understanding of relevant national and international developments. We would also like to thank our partner, the GoChains project (link), which organised these events with us.
