Hybrid governance in a value chain

Two interrelated questions are addressed: first, whether and how private standard and certification schemes should operate in market conditions; and, second, the extent to which there should be operative regulation of private schemes? Central is the soft-law relationship between major public and private standard-setters and their respective (certificated) standards of animal welfare in agriculture determinative of the produce supplied in the transnational setting of the agri-food chain. This chapter considers the extent to which there can, or should, be EU regulation of private standard-setters and their standards in animal welfare. It progresses beyond the preliminary interrelations between the WOAH (in cooperation with which the EU retains an active role) and the current major private collective IFA Livestock standard, certification, and accreditation scheme. Hybridity in animal welfare governance, the focus of this book, advocates the strengthening of interrelations between the WOAH and the incoming industry standard-setter of welfare for animals in agriculture. Correspondingly, it endorses reinforcement of the associated public oversight of accredited conformity assessment with those standards.