
LEXSECURE Project Information
The LEXSECURE project studies the legal foundations of global supply chains and what could be done to ensure secure supply of critical goods, such as medical supplies, in times of global crises. Today’s system of transnational trade is based on the belief that state interference should be avoided to allow free and efficient trade. Nonetheless, several exceptions are built into the system to allow states and private actors to derogate from this starting point in case of internal crises. If global trade is instead struck by a system-wide crisis, such as global refugee streams, climate change, or a pandemic like COVID-19, then there is a danger that each state’s uncoordinated and indiscriminate use of available exceptions disrupts the system more than is reasonable and prevents critical supplies from reaching those most in need. LEXSECURE maps the system of exceptions in transnational trade and evaluates possibilities for developing secure supply chains to counter future crises. It seeks to develop a coherent approach to fostering security of supply through law – as opposed to the current regulatory approach that seems to drift to the use of exceptions every time the society is faced with a crisis.
Project period: 21.08.2020 → 30.11.2023
Project partners and funding:

Photo: Paula Partanen
Latest from LEXSECURE
New project publication: Changing Causal Narratives and Risk Perceptions on Foreign Investment: the Riskification of Chinese Investments in the Nordic Region
A new article, ‘Changing Causal Narratives and Risk Perceptions on Foreign Investment: the Riskification of Chinese Investments in the Nordic Region’ authored by Mikael Mattlin and LEXSECURE project co-PI Mikko Rajavuori (Work Package 2), has been published online by the journal East Asia. The article surveys recent legislative and policy changes on foreign investments in…
New project publication: Digital Platforms as Second-Order Lead Firms
An article co-authored by LEXSECURE project researchers Jaakko Salminen (PI & WP1) and Mika Viljanen (WP4), together with Kevin B. Sobel-Read and Klaas Hendrik Eller, has been made available online. Digital Platforms as Second-Order Lead Firms: Beyond the Industrial/Digital Divide in Regulating Value Chains appears in European Review of Private Law. The authors argue that…
Corporate Responsibility and Law
On 16 February 2023, LEXSECURE project WP leaders Mikko Rajavuori and Mika Viljanen talked, together with Assistant Professor Anne Quarshie from Turku School of Economics (Management and Organisation), about Corporate Responsibility and Law at an alumni seminar organised jointly by the UTU Faculty of Law and TSE exe (Turku School of Economics Executive Education and…
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