The Shirts on Our Backs: The Rana Plaza Disaster, Interdependence, and the Shifting Locus of Responsibility

Abstract

The Rana Plaza Collapse at Savar, Bangladesh in April 2013 highlighted the immense power of global supply chains both to transform lives and imperil them. In the last decade Bangladesh has become a powerhouse of global garment manufacturing, largely through jobs shed by Chinese manufacturers. In the process, the identifiable nature of garments as a product, characteristics specific to the global garment industry, and growing consumer awareness, have all combined to permit corporate buyers in Europe and North America to dictate industrial standards. This article examines competing legal responses to the disaster as an example of the assumption of a degree of transnational legal responsibility by supply chains and their projected ability to effect change.