Une perspective anthropologique sur les pratiques de responsabilité des entreprises dans les chaînes de valeur mondiales

This contribution introduces a legal anthropological perspective on the governance of mining firms in global value chains. It takes the reader into a set of corporate-community relations on the resource frontier of a commodity enterprise in El Cesar, Northern Colombia. A particular corporate responsibility practice ? social programmes ? are presented and their effects on the corporate-community relations explored. The anthropological argument is that the social programmes continue a cycle of reciprocity by which the mining firm forges close and entangled relations to the local communities. In the closeness, the firm assumes and voices far-reaching responsibilities for the economic and social well-being of local communities. This anthropological conception of corporate-community relations and corporate responsibilities on resource frontiers find a legal counterpart in contractual obligations and third-party beneficiary rights. Hence, contract law could and should play a pivotal role in the regulation of global value chains in the commodity sector and beyond.