The Organization for Harmonization in Africa of Business Laws (OHADA) system has been adopted by 17 West African nations in order to increase their attractiveness to foreign investors and business partners. This book introduces OHADA laws to common-law trained, English-speaking jurists with clients in West or Central Africa.

This book examines the contemporary and contentious question of the critical connections between business and human rights, and the implementation of socially responsible norms in developing countries, with particular reference to Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Business enterprises and transnational corporate actors operate in a complex global environment, especially when operating in high risks sectors such as oil and gas, mining, construction, banking, and health care amongst others. Understanding human rights responsibilities, impacts, and socially responsible behaviour for companies is therefore an essential component of corporate risk management in our current world. The release of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, an instrument consisting of 31 principles on this issue, has further underscored the emergence of a rapidly developing set of international law norms on human rights responsibilities of businesses and transnational corporations. It has also shaped the discourse on corporate accountability for human rights. In addition to minimizing litigation, financial and reputational risks, understanding and demonstrating corporate respect for human rights is vital to building a culture of trust and integrity amongst local communities, investors, and shareholders. While Africa has been at the receiving end of deleterious activities of corporate actors, it has failed to address corporate impunity and human rights violations by non-state actors. Questions abound revolving around the underpinnings of a corporate responsibility to respect human rights, that is, how non-western and particularly African conceptions of respect may help develop a beyond do no net harm approach to respect; policy discourses on human rights due diligence, human rights impact assessment; mandating corporate respect for human rights in both domestic and international law. This book examines, clarifies, and unpacks the guiding principles of a rights-based approach to development and social inclusion. It offers an excellent exposition of regulatory capacity, institutional efficacy, and democratic legitimacy of governance institutions that shape development including a comprehensive analysis of how states are shaping business and human rights discourses locally to develop a critical understanding of identified issues by exploring the latest theories through comparative lenses.

Praise and Reviews `An important new book.` African Review of Business and Technology Legal harmonization is an essential step to encouraging foreign investment in Africa and the development of sustainable pan-African trade.This important new book explains the new system of law, now being developed and promoted by OHADA. OHADA - the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa - is an international organization currently comprising 16 Member States: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. As a result of the creation of OHADA, business law in these African countries has recently entered a new era of rapid modernization and harmonization. OHADA's essential aim is to promote economic integration and development by creating a secure legal framework for the conduct of business in Africa. In order to achieve this aim, OHADA has enacted a number of laws, known as Uniform Acts, on various aspects of business law including commercial and company laws, insolvency, securities and arbitration. These Uniform Acts are directly applicable throughout the Member States. This book offers an overview of the aims and achievements of the OHADA system and explains in depth the legislation that has been issued to date. It will be invaluable to legal and business development executives in major global companies, international law firms, accountants and management consultants, students of international business law, government agencies, and NGOs concerned with Africa and African business people. The authors are members of the Africa team in the Paris office of Eversheds: Boris Martor, Avocat à la Cour de Paris Nanette Pilkington, Avocat à la Cour de Paris David S. Sellers, Solicitor, England & Wales, Avocat à la Cour de Paris Sébastien Thouvenot, Docteur en droit, Elève-avocat who have worked in close collaboration with: Adesegun A. Akin-Olugbade, General Counsel, African Development Bank Dr. Martha Simo Tumnde née Njikam, Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Cameroon, Head of Department of Law and Vice-Dean in charge of Programmes and Academic Affairs in the Faculty of Social and Management Sciences, University of Buea, Cameroon

Buisness Law In Africa gives a general presentation of the seven Uniform Acts that have been issued to date concerning, respectively, general commercial law, corporate law, bankruptcy, securities, accounting, recovery and enforcement procedures, and arbitration.

The Second Edition of this unprecedented volume assembles an updated and expanded country-by-country analysis – both practical and insightful – of how arbitration is conducted in forty-nine African countries, providing essential information about legislative provisions, treaty adherence, and arbitral procedure. Contributors include sought-after African arbitrators, distinguished practitioners, academics and institution-builders, all of whom are active in promoting the use of arbitration as a viable means of dispute resolution in Africa. Five sections representing the main regions of the continent, each with a substantive introductory chapter covering the major trends within that region, offer country overviews addressing issues such as the following: adherence to the key arbitration conventions; modernity of a State’s arbitration legislation and its compatibility with the UNCITRAL Model Law; particular features of arbitral practice in that jurisdiction (including responses to the COVID-19 pandemic); access to and (where available) statistics from local and regional arbitral institutions; significant arbitration-related national case law; and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. A sixth section focuses on treaty-based investor-State arbitration against African States under the ICSID Convention, providing an empirical analysis of the experience and record of African States with investor-State arbitration in the period between 2010 and 2020. Useful tables and graphics of intra-African bilateral investment treaties, a list of ICSID proceedings involving African States, a list of treaty accession by African States, and other tabular features round out the volume. The first edition of this volume was welcomed by arbitration practitioners and legal academics everywhere as an essential guide to an emerging and important area of international arbitration practice. This second edition tracks the significant developments (in treaty accession, reform of arbitration legislation and developing case law) that have taken place over the past decade, and confirms that arbitration as a preferred method of dispute resolution is now firmly entrenched on the African continent.

This book examines the conception of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Africa, expanding it’s frontiers beyond corporate reporting, voluntary corporate charity and community development projects. Taking a corporate law perspective on CSR, the author combines theory and practice to explain how CSR interacts with of sustainable development and sets an agenda for effective operationalization in Africa. The book not only devises an enforcement mechanism towards embedding effective CSR and sustainable development in Africa but also addresses CSR greenwash on the continent. The author critically examines CSR practices, legal and regulatory techniques in Nigeria and South Africa in the context of contexts of international regulatory dialogues and shows how corporate socially responsible behaviour can be effectively embedded within business communities in Africa. Increasing our understanding of the theoretical, legal and regulatory frameworks supporting corporate responsibility, this book will be of interest to scholars, policy makers and practitioners in the fields of Africa law, corporate law, corporate social responsibility and African business.

The book provides a systematic examination of the legal, fiscal and institutional frameworks for the commercial development of petroleum and solid mineral resources in Africa. First, it considers the values, assumptions, and guiding principles underpinning legislation and governance in Africa’s extractive sector. It then provides detailed and comparative evaluations of regulatory frameworks, pricing, local content, procurement, sales, and contractual arrangements across African extractive industries. Further, the book assesses how questions of business and human rights risks, accountability, corporate social responsibility, waste and pollution control, environmental justice, and participatory development have been addressed to date, and how they could be addressed better in the future. Enhancing readers’ understanding of the geography, sources and scope of extractive resources in Africa, the book explains how corporations can effectively identify, mitigate and prevent legal and business risks when investing in African extractive industries. Lastly, it discusses the innovative legal strategies and tools needed to achieve a sustainable and rights-based extractive industry.Written in a user-friendly style, the book offers a valuable resource for corporations, investors, environmental and human rights administrators, advocates, policymakers, judges, international negotiators, government officials and consultants who advise on, or are interested in, petroleum and solid mineral investments in Africa. It also offers students and researchers an authoritative guidebook to the current state of extractive industry laws and institutions in Africa. Numerous examples of how international legal norms could be used to help revitalize the underlying legal and fiscal regimes in African extractive industries – to make them more robust, accountable, sustainable and rights-based – round out the coverage

Agricultural Law in Sub-Saharan Africa: Cases and Comments introduces the subject of agricultural law and economics to researchers, practitioners, and students in common law countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and presents information from the legal system in Botswana, Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The law and economics approach entails the use of quantitative methods in research. This is consistent with the expectations in an applied economics field such as agricultural economics. Covering the general traditional law topics in contracts, torts, and property, the book goes further to introduce cutting-edge and region-relevant topics, including contracts with illiterate parties, contract farming, climate change, and transboundary water issues. The book is supported by an extensive list of reference materials, as well as study and enrichment exercises, to deepen readers' understanding of the principles discussed in the book. It is a learning tool, first and foremost, and can be used as a stand-alone resource to teach the subject matter of agricultural law and economics to professionals new to the subject area as well as to students in law school, agricultural economics, economics, and inter-disciplinary classes. - Offers research findings on such topics as food safety, climate change, transboundary natural resources, international sale of goods, patents, and trademarks to highlight the future sources of pressure on the agriculture industry - Uses case-studies to provide real-world insights into the challenges and considerations of appropriate agricultural law development - Challenges readers to carry out their own research in their areas of study, and to gain some understanding of the relationship between law, economics, and statistics - Includes extensive resources, such as chapter summaries, study questions, and challenge questions at the end of each chapter to assist instructors and students in gaining full benefits from using the book - Provides separate instructor and student study guides, a test bank, and test bank answers, in hardcopy and electronic formats

This book studies the international investment law regime in Africa and provides a comprehensive analysis of the current treaty practices in Africa from global, regional and domestic perspectives. It develops a public interest regulation theory to highlight the role of investment regulation in sustainable development and the protection of human rights. In doing so, the book identifies seven factors that should be considered by arbitrators in resolving international investment disputes that affect the public interest. It considers how corporations can be held accountable through investment treaties in the absence of a global treaty on business and human rights while protecting the rights of investors and their investments. Furthermore, the book explores the current objectives and features of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) as well as the deficiencies and its intersection with the rule of law. It identifies alternatives for ISDS and the extent to which these alternatives address the objectives of attracting investment, depoliticise investment disputes, promote the rule of law and offer remedies to investors. These solutions are offered in relation to the protection of human rights, the promotion of sustainable development and the right of states to introduce domestic public interest regulation. Finally, the book takes a prospective stance and discusses future trends for dispute settlement and investment rulemaking in Africa.

The Authors. List of Abbreviations. General Introduction. Part I. General Principles (Choice-of-Law Technique). Chapter 1. Sources of PIL. Chapter 2. Connection. Chapter 3. Basic Terms. Part II. Rules of Choice of Law. Chapter 1. Persons. Chapter 2. Obligations. Chapter 3. Law of Property. Chapter 4. Intangible Property Rights. Chapter 5. Company Law. Chapter 6. Family Law. Chapter 7. Succession Law. Part III. Annex: International Civil Procedure (ICP). Chapter 1. Sources of ICP (National Law, International Conventions). Chapter 2. The Principle of Lex Fori. Chapter 3. National Jurisdiction. Chapter 4. International Jurisdiction. Chapter 5. Acceptability (Recognition) and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments. Selected Bibliography. Index.