Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Legality Without Protection? Interpreting the Legality Requirement under the EU Deforestation Regulation: Due Diligence, Human Rights and the Risk of Exclusion

Dimitriadou, Theodora Despoina LU (2026) JAMM07 20261
Department of Law
Faculty of Law
Abstract
The legality requirement under the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR) raises important interpretative questions concerning the nature and scope of the due diligence obligations imposed on companies operating in global value chains (GVCs). While the EUDR was primarily adopted as an environmental instrument aimed at reducing the European Union’s contribution to global deforestation and forest degradation, it also introduces human rights considerations through its requirement that relevant commodities be produced in accordance with the applicable legislation of the country of production, including laws relating to land rights, labour rights, Indigenous peoples’ rights and human rights protected under international
law.
... (More)
The legality requirement under the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR) raises important interpretative questions concerning the nature and scope of the due diligence obligations imposed on companies operating in global value chains (GVCs). While the EUDR was primarily adopted as an environmental instrument aimed at reducing the European Union’s contribution to global deforestation and forest degradation, it also introduces human rights considerations through its requirement that relevant commodities be produced in accordance with the applicable legislation of the country of production, including laws relating to land rights, labour rights, Indigenous peoples’ rights and human rights protected under international
law.
This thesis argues that the legality requirement is best understood within the
broader EU and international business and human rights frameworks, particularly in relation to the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the legality framework previously developed under the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR). It identifies significant uncertainty regarding both the scope of relevant human rights protections and the extent of due diligence required to demonstrate that products present only a ‘negligible risk’ of non compliance.
Building on doctrinal legal analysis combined with an effects-oriented and contextual approach, the thesis demonstrates that the EUDR operates through a predominantly exclusionary compliance model. Unlike broader international and EU corporate human rights and environmental due diligence frameworks, which emphasise ongoing engagement, mitigation and remediation, the EUDR conditions market access on the ability of companies to demonstrate negligible risk. In practice, this may incentivise disengagement from legally or politically complex sourcing contexts rather than long-term investment in improving human rights, environmental and
labour conditions within GVCs.
The thesis further examines how these dynamics may disproportionately affect smallholders, Indigenous peoples and other vulnerable rightsholders in producer countries. Through analysis of existing literature, policy documents and selected case studies from sectors such as cocoa, coffee and palm oil, it shows that the costs and burdens associated with compliance are likely to fall most heavily on actors operating in contexts characterised by insecure land tenure, weak governance and labour informality. In this respect, legality based governance mechanisms risk reinforcing structural inequalities where domestic legal systems themselves fail to adequately recognise or protect substantive human rights.
Ultimately, the thesis concludes that the challenges raised by the EUDR are not only interpretative, but structural. Clarifying the meaning of the legality requirement and the negligible-risk threshold is necessary to reduce legal
uncertainty, but legal clarification alone cannot fully address the broader
inequalities embedded within GVCs. A more coherent and proportionate approach to due diligence would require stronger alignment between environmental objectives and long-term human rights protection, particularly for the communities most directly affected by deforestation-related regulation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Dimitriadou, Theodora Despoina LU
supervisor
organization
course
JAMM07 20261
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
language
English
id
9235430
date added to LUP
2026-06-15 09:12:08
date last changed
2026-06-15 09:12:08
@misc{9235430,
  abstract     = {{The legality requirement under the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR) raises important interpretative questions concerning the nature and scope of the due diligence obligations imposed on companies operating in global value chains (GVCs). While the EUDR was primarily adopted as an environmental instrument aimed at reducing the European Union’s contribution to global deforestation and forest degradation, it also introduces human rights considerations through its requirement that relevant commodities be produced in accordance with the applicable legislation of the country of production, including laws relating to land rights, labour rights, Indigenous peoples’ rights and human rights protected under international 
law. 
This thesis argues that the legality requirement is best understood within the 
broader EU and international business and human rights frameworks, particularly in relation to the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the legality framework previously developed under the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR). It identifies significant uncertainty regarding both the scope of relevant human rights protections and the extent of due diligence required to demonstrate that products present only a ‘negligible risk’ of non compliance. 
Building on doctrinal legal analysis combined with an effects-oriented and contextual approach, the thesis demonstrates that the EUDR operates through a predominantly exclusionary compliance model. Unlike broader international and EU corporate human rights and environmental due diligence frameworks, which emphasise ongoing engagement, mitigation and remediation, the EUDR conditions market access on the ability of companies to demonstrate negligible risk. In practice, this may incentivise disengagement from legally or politically complex sourcing contexts rather than long-term investment in improving human rights, environmental and 
labour conditions within GVCs. 
The thesis further examines how these dynamics may disproportionately affect smallholders, Indigenous peoples and other vulnerable rightsholders in producer countries. Through analysis of existing literature, policy documents and selected case studies from sectors such as cocoa, coffee and palm oil, it shows that the costs and burdens associated with compliance are likely to fall most heavily on actors operating in contexts characterised by insecure land tenure, weak governance and labour informality. In this respect, legality based governance mechanisms risk reinforcing structural inequalities where domestic legal systems themselves fail to adequately recognise or protect substantive human rights. 
Ultimately, the thesis concludes that the challenges raised by the EUDR are not only interpretative, but structural. Clarifying the meaning of the legality requirement and the negligible-risk threshold is necessary to reduce legal 
uncertainty, but legal clarification alone cannot fully address the broader 
inequalities embedded within GVCs. A more coherent and proportionate approach to due diligence would require stronger alignment between environmental objectives and long-term human rights protection, particularly for the communities most directly affected by deforestation-related regulation.}},
  author       = {{Dimitriadou, Theodora Despoina}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Legality Without Protection? Interpreting the Legality Requirement under the EU Deforestation Regulation: Due Diligence, Human Rights and the Risk of Exclusion}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}