18 June 2026
Bilbao campus
On 18 June, the Mensajero Room hosted an international conference entitled “The Role of Law in Global Supply Chains: Transport and Markets”. This conference formed part of the activities organised by the ‘Economic Constitution and Social Justice’ research team. The opening remarks were made by the principal investigator of the research team, Luis Ignacio Gordillo, associate professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Deusto.
This was followed by the first panel of the conference, which focused on transport and competition law. The first panel featured Stella Solernou Sanz, senior lecturer in Commercial Law, and Leire Gutierrez Molina, assistant lecturer (PhD) in Commercial Law, both from the University of Deusto. The first paper addressed the issue of regulatory intervention in the taxi sector and private hire vehicle (PHV) licences. The second, focusing on air transport, examined issues relating to the public subsidies received by airlines, as well as so-called greenwashing practised by air transport operators.
After a brief break, the conference continued with the second panel, which began with a presentation by Jaime de Jesús Paredes Camacho, a professor at UNAM and an international railway consultant. In his speech, he addressed the right to use rail transport, emphasising the importance of infrastructure as public assets. Next, Belén García Álvarez, lecturer in Commercial Law at the University of Deusto, examined the impact and legal implications of the growing automation of loading and unloading operations in freight transport, highlighting the emergence of new actors such as technology providers. To bring this second panel to a close, Unai Belinxton Martín, senior lecturer in Private International Law at the Public University of Navarra, discussed the challenges involved in determining the applicable law and international jurisdiction in the field of road freight transport, highlighting the fact that road transport has received less attention from the European Union, despite its enormous impact on the transport of both goods and passengers.
The keynote lecture of the conference was then delivered by Iñaki Barrón de Angoiti, engineer, international railway consultant and Chair of the Railway Accident Investigation Commission, highlighting the importance of rail transport. In this regard, the advantages of rail transport compared with other modes of transport were explained, as was the current situation of the sector both in Spain and internationally, with particular emphasis on the importance of conducting technical investigations into accidents and incidents in order to improve safety and prevent further incidents.
In the afternoon, the conference continued with the presentation of several papers, some delivered online by researchers and professionals from various Latin American countries, and others in person.
