In January 2022, a global multidisciplinary team of Reed Smith lawyers published the paper “Global air freight’s future – The sky is the limit.” Since then, the supply chain landscape has rapidly evolved, fueled by the need to minimize disruptions from geopolitical tensions, pandemics and climate-related events, while taking advantage of changing behaviors, technological advancements and the push for sustainability.

Navigating this evolution across jurisdictions, against a background of ever-changing law and policy, is made more challenging because supply chains lack good end-to-end visibility and often resemble a complex web, not a chain. Law is, for the most part, the result of centuries of human transactions and behaviors, and the reactions and influence of governments and lawmakers. However, given the pace of change in global supply chains, deciphering and advising on the pervasive and ever-changing laws and rules that govern this web requires a strong handle on centuries of legal precedent, as well as a continuously updated grasp of the latest practical, technological and legal developments.

These laws and rules create a significant tapestry of code – the code that underpins the proper and predictable functioning of our lives in this globally interconnected system of commerce and logistics, which is the modern supply chain. We hope that this series of articles offers an interesting and thought-provoking insight into some of this – as we attempt to decode the global supply chain.