At the end of July 2024, the EU Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence, or CSDDD for short, came into force. Member states now have two years to transpose it into their national law. To mark this occasion, the Institute for European Private Law of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Graz and the Centre for European Private Law of the University of Graz and ECTIL, together with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights and the University of Vienna, organised a conference on corporate responsibility in value and supply chains on 18 October 2024 at the University of Graz. Experts from various legal disciplines, including stakeholders, presented the development of supply chain responsibility. The focus of the presentations and discussions with the almost 90 participants was on due diligence obligations and liability as standardised by the new directive (CSDDD).

The event was opened by Univ.-Prof. Dr Walter Doralt, Vice Dean and Dean of Research at the Faculty of Law, as well as by Assoc. Prof^. Dr Barbara C^. Steininger, University of Graz, and Univ.-Prof. Dr Michael Lysander Fremuth, University of Vienna. In the opening lecture, Christine^Fiala, judge and advisor at the Federal Ministry of Justice, presented the content of the CSDDD and possible implementation plans.

The presentations in Panel I focussed on due diligence obligations. Assistant Professor Dr Stephanie^Nitsch, University of Vienna, reported from the perspective of civil law and retired Professor Dr Wolfgang Benedek, University of Graz, presented the obligations from the perspective of international law. Dieter Seifert, AVL, who kindly stood in for Dr Yorck Schmidt, AVL, at short notice, provided information on the risks and opportunities in relation to the change in global corporate responsibility as a result of the CSDDD.

The presentations in Panel II focussed on civil liability. Prof Dr Jonas Knetsch, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, gave a presentation on the CSDDD liability regulation against the background of French experience. The requirements and procedural aspects of liability under Art. 29 CSDDD were discussed by Assoc. Prof^. Dr Barbara C^. Steininger, University of Graz, and Dr David Messner-Kreuzbauer, Institute for European Tort Law of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Graz.

Strategies for the practical implementation of due diligence obligations were dealt with in Panel III. Dr Camilla^Haake and Stephen Rabenlehner, MA, both of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights, provided information on the opportunities and risks associated with verification by independent third parties in the activity chain. The presentation by MMag^.a Julia Wegerer, AK Vienna, dealt with the effective involvement of stakeholders. Johanna Reinisch, LL.M., WKÖ, presented what an efficient, practical and unbureaucratic implementation of the CSDDD could look like^.

The topic of Panel IV was international law enforcement. Prof^. Dr Kirsten^Schmalenbach, Paris Lodron University Salzburg, dealt with jurisdictional issues of supply chain responsibility and Prof. Dr Brigitta Lurger^, LL^. M. (Harvard), University of Graz, presented the cornerstones of private international law in the supply chain.

Lively discussions took place at the end of each panel and the opportunity for in-depth dialogue on the topic between representatives from academia and civil society as well as practitioners was also successfully used during the breaks.