Bibliographie sélective OHADA

Rules of origin play a pivotal role in free trade agreements. Apart from serving as a tool to distinguish goods by determining the nationality of a product, rules of origin have the capacity to increase trade relations or deter it. Of course, it is the hope of any viable state to increase profitable trading relations, and if rules of origin can help with that, it becomes expedient to fully understand how these rules of origin operate. In Africa, we see rules of origin being implemented amongst the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), but this has come with many struggles. In fact, low intra-African trade can be narrowed down to complex rules of origin regimes deployed in regional agreements in Africa. As of date, the major RECs have each implemented different rules of origin, leading to the co-existence of conflicting rules of origin across Africa. This non-uniformity in the rules of origin regimes in Africa has resulted in low continental trade in Africa. As such, these RECs have not yielded the expected increase in intra-African trade. With the creation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which currently doubles as the latest and largest FTA in Africa, it is expected that better rules of origin will be deployed to mitigate the existing intra-African trade deficits. This thesis thus deploys a doctrinal approach in determining whether AfCFTA’s rules of origin are positioned to achieve greater intra-African trade. Consequently, this thesis uncovers some lapses in AfCFTA’s rules of origin and calls for harmonization of all the rules of origin in Africa and recommends a possible amendment to Article 19 of the Agreement establishing AfCFTA to accommodate the intended harmonization.

Taxpayer confidentiality and its implications (if any), on illegal miners

Section 23(5) of the Insolvency Act poses an interesting challenge, namely vesting a portion of an insolvent’s post-sequestration income in the trustee of the insolvent estate without infringing on the insolvent’s constitutional rights. The income earned by the insolvent during sequestration is in general excluded from his estate and does not vest in the trustee, unless the Master determines that a portion of the insolvent’s income will not be required to maintain the insolvent and his dependents. In such a case, only the portion deemed to be surplus to requirements will be included in the insolvent estate and will vest in the trustee. The question of what role the insolvent’s income should play during the sequestration process, and therefore how section 23(5) should be interpreted and applied, has vexed the courts and numerous practical and constitutional issues arise. This study examines the application and shortcomings of section 23(5) during the administration phase of the sequestration process. It then explores the lessons learned during the recent constitutional scrutiny and subsequent amendment of the emoluments attachment process. Lastly, recommendations are made for possible law reform of section 23(5).

This dissertation explores the evolution of explicit deposit insurance schemes (EDIS) in Southern African countries. It emphasises the important role of banks in the economy and their vulnerability to failures despite prudential requirements and supervision. Financial safety nets are essential for failing banks, and deposit insurance is the primary mechanism to protect depositors and maintain financial system stability in the event of a bank's failure. Originating in 1933 with the establishment of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the United States of America during the Great Depression, EDIS has become a global standard. Southern Africa, with its developing financial sector, faces many challenges including bank failures, causing depositors to lose funds. The region's high interconnectedness increases the threat of contagion if parent banks fail. The absence of deposit insurance raises the likelihood of fiscal authorities succumbing to political pressure to bailout failing banks during crises as seen during the 2007-09 Global Financial Crisis (GFC). The GFC prompted the International Association of Deposit Insurers and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision to establish the Core Principles for Effective Deposit Insurance Systems. Issued in June 2009, these principles are used by jurisdictions as a benchmark for assessing the quality of their deposit insurance systems and identifying gaps in their deposit insurance practices. This research aims to evaluate international best practice standards for EDIS and extract lessons from the establishment of EDIS in the USA to address gaps in the implementation of deposit insurance schemes in Southern African countries. Examining ten Southern African countries, this research investigates varied progress in EDIS adoption. Case studies, particularly Zimbabwe as a pioneer of EDIS in the region and Namibia as a recent entrant, help to identify gaps and opportunities for enhancing deposit insurance frameworks in the region.

Environmental reclamation obligations are statutory mechanisms designed to regulate environmental protection by corporate entities. Bankruptcy laws on the other hand are meant to offer insolvent corporations an opportunity to reorganize their affairs, satisfy creditors claims and make a fresh start. In practice, the application of bankruptcy laws can undermine key environmental reclamation objectives, leading many to ask whether a corporation undergoing restructuring with significant outstanding environmental reclamation obligations should be able to commence bankruptcy proceedings to satisfy creditors’ claims? By employing the doctrinal and comparative research methodologies, this research interrogates that inquiry. It argues that, despite the importance of bankruptcy protection for corporations undergoing financial distress, environmental protection should be paramount. Although sustainable finance (SF) instruments have been deployed by banks to enable creditors to mitigate environmental concerns in their investments, the persistent recurrence of environmental reclamation issues in the oil and gas sector particularly during insolvencies, underscores the need for financial investors to strengthen their investment policies to reflect best practices providing the desired protection for the environment. The research finds that, although SF and environmental, social and governance (ESG) approaches, are commendable, they are insufficient in instilling adequate regulatory impact on the environment compared to judicial control offered by the courts. The thesis concludes that whilst judicial control mechanism is not without concerns, with government’s deliberate financial policy and judicial control to complement SF and ESG efforts, ESG and SF mechanisms can be strengthened to compel greater significant influence on best practices in lending.

In South Africa, before the Financial Advisory and Intermediaries Services Act (FAIS Act) and other insurance laws came into existence, intermediary services regarding the rendering of insurance products have always been regulated by the law of agency and mandate. This means that the Roman-Dutch principles provided for the standards to which the conduct of intermediaries was to comply with when rendering insurance services. The mandate of intermediaries in terms of the Roman-Dutch Principles also included the fact that they had to act with care, skill and in good faith. When the FAIS Act came into operation, it introduced several detailed rules and minimum standards for insurance intermediaries to comply with, and these minimum standards are not limited to qualifications, experiences and characteristics of honesty and integrity that an intermediary must comply with, but they also stipulated in detail what an intermediary must do when discharging insurance intermediary duties. The FAIS Act is the leading legislation when it comes to the regulation of intermediary services. The FAIS Act, under section 16, provides for a General Code of Conduct for Authorised Financial Services Providers and their Representative (GCC), which contains a set of rules that are applicable to all intermediaries. These rules under the GCC are aimed at ensuring that insurance customers are provided with material facts that will enable them to make a prior informed decision and that their reasonable financial needs concerning insurance products will be carefully considered so that they can be provided with a product that will be suitable to satisfy their needs. Furthermore, in terms of South African laws and practices, intermediaries play an essential role in the creation of legally binding insurance contracts. Insurance businesses are concluded through intermediaries. Considering that many insurance companies are juristic persons, and they can only conduct business by means of human agents, insurance laws make it compulsory for intermediaries to have skills, knowledge, and experience regarding insurance products that they are rendering to insurance customers. It is commonly believed that intermediaries with skills, knowledge and experience, they always act in the best interest of the client, and they ask relevant questions to assist the clients to disclose all material facts, and they always make sure that material facts are clearly communicated/disclosed to the insurer and insured to avoid future conflicts. The legal framework placed a duty on the intermediary to assist the insured to disclose all material facts and to explain all clauses contained in the insurance contract which may lead to the insurer repudiate its liability. Furthermore, an intermediary is at all material times expected to first consider the financial situation of the potential insured before determines a cover that will be best suitable for the insured’s needs. However, despite the best guidelines outlined by applicable insurance laws and regulations, mistakes are still being made by intermediaries, which lead to insurance customers to suffer the consequences of impractical intermediary services, and that has resulted in numerous complaints, legal disputes, debarments, and other regulatory actions. As a result of intermediaries’ continuous misconduct, insurers have been repudiating claims, and it has created a presumption that insurers conduct businesses to enrich themselves instead of protecting the interests of their customers as required by regulating legal framework. Therefore, so many people have lost confidence in the insurance industry due to unlimited court cases and complaints arising from misconduct or omissions of intermediaries, such as their failure to disclose material facts to the parties. Once it is found that material facts were not fully disclosed between the insurer and insured, both parties would have been deprived of their right to make an informed decision before consenting or signing a legally binding contract. Therefore, a need is created for intermediaries to be educated of their legal duties when rendering insurance services and that will help strengthen or restore the confidence of the public towards insurance industry.

Abstract available in PDF.

Mergers in the Italian and European legal system. The Italian legal landscape for mergers. Applicable regulations. Stages of the merger process. The first phase: the merger plan. The second phase: the merger resolution. The third phase: the merger deed. The protection of creditors. The invalidity of the merger. The FIAT-Chrysler merger. Evolution of the legal nature of mergers in the Italian legal system: legislative and jurisprudential perspectives. The extinguishing-successory orientation. The evolutionary–modifying orientation. Court of cassation ruling no. 2637 of 2006. Return to the extinguishing-successory orientation: judgement no. 21970/2021. Debate surrounding judgement 21970/2021: criticism and support. Mergers in the American legal system. The American legal landscape for mergers. The evolution of the US corporate law of mergers. Sources of corporate law. The merger process. Economic motives for mergers. Steps of the merger procedure. The merger plan. Merger between parent and subsidiary or between subsidiaries. Articles of merger. Effects of merger. Abandonment of a merger or share exchange. The ExxonMobil merger. Comparative analysis of the Italian and American legal systems. Historical and constitutional influences on Italian and American legal systems. Differences and similarities in the merger process. Comparison of FIAT Chrysler and ExxonMobil mergers.

This thesis focuses on the relationship between contract law and corporate insolvency law as it investigates the idea and protection of executory contracts within restructuring proceedings. However, preserving these agreements frequently necessitates taking legal action against established contract law tenets like the freedom of contract and the duty to perform. The study looks at how difficult it can be to keep debtor and creditor interests in balance, especially when there are disruptions brought on by insolvency. The study suggests ways to improve the efficacy of restructuring proceedings by analysing the EU Directive on restructuring and insolvency, contrasting practices in various jurisdictions, and evaluating the impact on stakeholders. The goal of this study is to protect the rights of all parties involved in corporate restructuring while advancing the creation of legal frameworks that facilitate effective restructuring.

An array of governance initiatives has emerged to address forced labour and labour exploitation in global value chains (GVCs). Drawing on the transnational business governance interactions theoretical framework, as well as Timothy Bartley’s place-conscious transnational governance model, this thesis examines the interaction between two of these hybrid forms of governance: multi-stakeholder initiatives and corporate sustainability laws. I conduct a case study of the cocoa sector, and specifically of the multinational company, Nestlé, using multiple qualitative research methods including legal analysis, key informant interviews, and documentary analysis. My research suggests that the layering of corporate sustainability laws, and particularly the French Duty of Vigilance Law, on top of CSR and MSIs in the cocoa sector, is not addressing the governance gap that permits corporations to evade accountability for human rights abuses in their supply chain. I find that the introduction of corporate sustainability laws may have contributed to a decrease in Nestlé's efforts to address labor violations in certain areas, while in others, it appears to have supported the continuation of existing practices. This raises implications for the continuous efforts in various jurisdictions to introduce these laws as a solution to the shortcomings of private, voluntary rule-making systems. Further research is required to explore how these governance mechanisms are interacting in other sectors, in companies of different sizes, and within various types of MSIs. This will help identify the factors that influence interactions and shed further light on the path forward for policymakers.

Workplace bullying is not considered a form of harassment that is commonly acknowledged nor does it attract specific legislative protection. The aim of this mini-dissertation is to ascertain the degree to which victims of workplace bullying are protected by South African labour legislation and whether other measures are necessary to ensure that employees are adequately protected. A comparative analysis between South Africa and the United Kongdom's legislative frameworks that governs workplace violence and harassment and, by implication, bullying is a critical aspect of this mini-dissertation.

Tax authorities have always assessed and enforced taxes based on the physical address of businesses over the years. Nevertheless, the idea of tax jurisdiction has taken on a new meaning with the development of information and communication technology, and its profound impact on every facet of human existence – including but not restricted to trade and business. This development has undoubtedly increased capital mobility, especially in corporate form, and exposed more the weaknesses in national tax laws by enabling the artificial relocation of important economic components and potential exemption from taxes. Since it is getting harder to separate the digital economy from the rest of the economy for taxation reasons, the process of digitalization has emerged as one of the primary growth drivers. This expansion, together with aggressive tax planning strategies used by multinational enterprises (MNEs) to move revenues to low-tax jurisdictions and the development of business models requiring less physical presence, has increased the workload for tax administrators; furthermore, it has reduced governments’ capacity to raise funds in the traditional manner. In this regard, I assess how “adequate” the selected African countries’ frameworks are vis-à-vis the ongoing OECD and UN negotiations. Beyond the consultations, I call for a more inclusive and Africanised approach and the need for African countries to improve their tax administration mechanisms.

The African Continental Free Trade Area as a flagship project of Agenda 2063 represents renewed attempts by the African Union to drive the continent closer to its economic integration ambitions, which can be formally traced back to the adoption of the African Declaration on Cooperation, Development, and Economic Independence, and later the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community. Building on these frameworks, the AfCFTA seeks to, amongst others, advance intra-African trade by creating a single market for goods and services facilitated by the movement of persons, promoting sustainable and inclusive socio-economic growth, creating a liberalised market for goods and services, and promoting industrial development. Central to the attainment of the objectives of the AfCFTA is a well-functioning and effective institutional framework at a continental, regional, and national level all well-integrated to facilitate and oversee its implementation. The strengthening of regional and continental institutions to effectively lead and drive Africa’s transformation agenda has also been recognised by Agenda 2063 as a key enabler to this end. The demise of previous African integration efforts has mainly been attributed to the weakness of regional and continental organs to be able to effectively oversee and administer the implementation of continental programmes by the countries. This thesis appraises the institutional framework established to oversee the implementation, administration, facilitation, and monitoring of the AfCFTA, and this is considered against the broader African Union institutional framework and the regional economic communities. Although vastly different, the thesis further considers the experience and best practices from the European Union regional integration model to draw lessons and with a view to reforming and integrating African continental and regional bodies to be able to effectively oversee key initiatives including the AfCFTA. Finally, the thesis considers some of the work already initiated by the AU to review and reconfigure the extant continental bodies and then recommends some key interventions to reinforce and better integrate the institutional framework of the AfCFTA with the existing continental and regional frameworks.

Exchange platforms listed on European markets: financial contamination? The Luna collapse: present-day exposé. Aògorithmic stablecoins. The Luna project and the Terra ecosystem. Legal framework of a billion-dollar scam. Class action lawsuits. National and European implications of such actions. Misleading advertising (binance's liability) and culpa in eligendo. Exchange platforms listed on European markets: financial contamination? Parallels between shares and cryptocurrency investments: lack of transparency giving rise to bubbles. InvestVoyager case study. FTX case study. Positive law and new horizons. DeFi self-regulation: AML compliance and exchange platforms. The proposal of MiCA regulation (markets in crypto-assets). Payment systems directive 2 (PSD2). Directive 2009/110/EC on e-money. Potential solutions (proposals). External audit of smart contracts: a comprehensive examination-technical and legal perspectives. Digital euro. Establishment of a national or European commission: risks for consumers and comparative research. Regulation of exchanges and enforcement of transparency obligations.

National Manpower Development Secretariat

The success of commercial arbitration law and practice is achieved as a result of several factors. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether efficacy of commercial arbitration, law and practice in Lesotho is hindered by the legal framework which does not conform to the United Nations Commission Trade Law on International Commercial Arbitration, UNCITRAL Model Law. Examining such other factors as support of the courts and government, the study specifically investigated the impact of lack of education about commercial arbitration for the business community and unregulated arbitrators on the efficacy of the commercial arbitration, law and practice in Lesotho. With the use of the desk reviews and interviews as data collection methods for this study, the evidence obtained has revealed that efficacy of the commercial arbitration, law and practice in Lesotho is hampered by the law which is outdated and inconsistent with the UNCITRAL Model law. As such, support for the mechanism by the courts has been found to be at stake or adversely affected. Lack of support from the government and that of awareness campaigns about the mechanism for the business community have also been noted for constraining the efficacy of the commercial arbitration, law and practice in the country. Further noticeable from the findings include limited commitment from the legal profession and unregulated arbitrators, both of which could have significantly obstructed the mechanism. The study thus concludes that there is an urgent need for law reforms and concerted commitment from the relevant stakeholders to help towards achieving efficacy of the commercial arbitration, law and practice in Lesotho.

EU’s competence over FDI: European technological sovereignty. Definition, origins, and scope of EU foreign investment law. EU competence over foreign direct investments. European technological sovereignty. Regulation 452/2019–screening mechanisms in national legislation with a focus of the Italian regime. Structure of regulation 452/2019. Implementation in national legislation. The screening regulation as a tool to enforce technological sovereignty. EU technological sovereignty in practice. First and second annual report on the screening of foreign direct investments into the Union. A first appraisal of the problematic interplay between FDIs and technological sovereignty.

For several decades, environmentalists have raised the alarm regarding the impending environmental catastrophe that results from the Anthropocene. Much attention has been given to the role that States play in contributing to ecological damage being wrought upon the Earth. However, we have only looked at the environmental destruction perpetrated by multinational companies (“MNCs”) in the past decade. Natural disasters like the Deepwater Horizon explosion have placed MNCs' dangerous impact on the environment in sharp relief. At the same time, revelations in the Carbon Majors Report and global litigation quantify the damage MNCs cause to the environment. Multinational companies (“MNCs), as a result of globalisation and trade liberalisation, are powerful entities within the global economy. Despite their size, MNCs remain primarily unregulated in international human rights law. Debates regarding who bears the duty for human rights intersect with a battle of political will between the Global North and Global South for developing binding human rights duties for MNCs. As a result, they can commit environmental harm, especially in the Global South, with relative impunity due to a lack of effective liability mechanisms. The doctrine of separate legal personality creates specific issues for holding MNCs liable for environmental harms in the Global South. Domestic courts in home States struggle to exercise jurisdiction over the environmental harms MNCs commit. In contrast, systemic barriers in host States create situations where victims are unable to seek redress within their State. To address these concerns, this thesis proposes a global liability regime founded on the principle of integrated regulation. This regime will utilise regulation at the institutional, national and international levels to enforce the environmental obligations of MNCs, rooted in the right to a healthy environment. This gives rise to multiple intersection human rights obligations which will regulate the behaviour of MNCs. This thesis recognises that such a framework requires a drastic reform in how the law and companies are conceptualised. However, such a reform would have wide-reaching implications for vindicating human rights violations.

Section 19(1) of the current Companies Act 71 of 2008 states that once a company is incorporated in accordance with this Act, it is considered as a juristic person and exists indefinitely until its name is removed from the companies register. It exists independently from its shareholders and controllers. This effect grants the company with characteristics of a natural person. This analogy implies complete independence of the company. However, this concept finds refuge from the English legal system and was later adopted by South African company law. This notion provides some legal protection to businesses and shields their owners from personal liability for the company's debts and commitments. Companies can use this to enter new markets, reduce their taxes, and take advantage of advantageous business environments. Furthermore, this doctrine promotes joint ventures and partnerships among enterprises from many countries, allowing them to share resources and risks. As a result, this allows international enterprises to benefit by conducting international transactions, expanding abroad, and entering contracts in foreign countries. However, like any other concept, it is susceptible to abuse. Individuals take advantage of it to benefit themselves. This is detrimental to the significance of this doctrine. This dissertation aims to look deeply into this concept, by examining its origins and influence throughout the years and during its current application in the South African legal framework and highlight instances where this doctrine will be set aside. This will be conducted by fully analysing Salomon’s case and the influence it has over current company law. More importantly, the author will further examine the significance of this doctrine in modern company law. This will be done by testing the application of this doctrine to modern corporations and challenges they face.