Bibliographie sélective OHADA

Accounting standardization in black African French-speaking countries is presented through two streams of research. The first stream presents the general chart of accounts common to all these countries as an accounting model which reconciles the divergences between the Anglo-Saxon and continental approaches to accounting, and thereby satisfies the requirements of users of accounting information. The second stream considers that the convergence towards IAS/IFRS is a vital way of attracting international investors and increasing development. This article stands by the second perspective and analyzes the changes introduced in the PCG-OHADA (2017) compared to the PCG-OHADA (2000). It shows that the new provisions of the PCG-OHADA are mainly inspired by IAS 1, IAS 16, IAS 19, IAS 36, IAS 38, IAS 40, and IFRS 6.

Nigeria currently has a non-functioning insolvency system; it is yet to record a successful insolvency case. This failure principally is attributable to the weak laws and enforcement policies in existence. The problem is exacerbated by burgeoning consumer debt in the formal sector. The causal factors for this increase in debt are negative economic growth indices such as rising inflation, interest rates and unemployment. With these indices predicted to worsen, a new Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) was proposed in 2016. The BIA seeks to regulate individual insolvency proceedings in Nigeria. However, the BIA (as currently conceptualized) does not make provision for debtors with neither income nor assets, often referred to as No Income No Assets (NINA) debtors who, it can be argued, are in the majority in the Nigerian state. The aim in this thesis is to propose debt relief measures that cater for NINA debtors in Nigeria. This proposal aims to prevent further discrimination against these debtors in terms of the current law and the proposed BIA. It envisages that catering for NINA debtors in Nigeria will boost the Nigerian government’s drive to encourage entrepreneurship. In providing for NINA debtors it will provide a safe landing for poor debtors in the event of entrepreneurial failure. The thesis achieves its stated aim by studying international principles and guidelines as espoused by leading bodies. Furthermore, the thesis performs a comparative analysis of relevant NINA provisions in South Africa, Sweden, France, Ireland and Canada. The thesis proposes amendments to the proposed BIA in light of the aforementioned analysis and posits that procedures that are formal and extra-judicial, which have no financial requirements and are easily accessible to debtors should be incorporated.

In the case Micula A.O. v. Romania, the arbitration tribunal established under the auspices of the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) sentenced Romania to pay a compensation for the revocation of investment incentives and for the breach of fair and equitable treatment principle that had been laid down in a bilateral investment treaty between Sweden and Romania. Considering investment incentives as a breach of the EU regulations regarding state aids, the European Commission then rendered a directive, prohibiting the enforcement of the arbitration award by the member states. As articles 53 and 54 of ICSID emphasize that the awards are binding, the EU Commission’s act of rendering the aforementioned directive, and the member states refusal to comply with the award equals to giving the EU law primacy over international law, which should be considered as a breach of their international obligations. Using a descriptive-analytical method, this article seeks to explain the viewpoints of the parties and the courts which were asked to enforce the award, as well as to determine the nature of their acts.

The aim of this research is to determine how the application of Big Data and Data Analytics techniques influences the external audit. The impact on the working methods and the audit quality is discussed. Furthermore, the technological maturity of the Belgian and Luxembourgish audit industry is analysed. Therefore, the following research questions are asked: How do Big Data and Data Analytics influence the audit working method? What is the impact of Big Data and Data Analytics on the audit quality? How is the audit risk identification and assessment phase influenced? Which audit risks can be identified? Which tools and techniques do the Belgian and Luxembourgish auditors use and where do they stand? In order to answer the research question, scientific articles were analysed in the context of the literature review. Subsequently, a case study was carried out. Interviews with experts in Belgium and Luxembourg were conducted. The results of the research show that there is high potential to use these technologies in audit. Nevertheless, it is also connected with initial investments and a certain agreement of the clients. There is high potential to enhance the auditor’s effectiveness and efficiency, but the complete impact cannot yet be analysed. The audit quality can be enhanced when qualitative analyses generates audit evidence based on high quality data. The Belgian and Luxembourgish audit industry has just started implementing the technologies.

Much has been written about the consequences for companies of criminal convictions for bribery and other corrupt practices. However, less attention has been paid to the sanctions regimes that have been developed by multilateral development banks in order to combat fraud and corruption in their operations. This is likely to change in view of the fact that on 9 April 2010, the heads of five leading multilateral development banks (MDBs) – the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank Group – signed the Agreement for Mutual Enforcement of Debarment Decisions, which provides for mutual and reciprocal enforcement of debarment decisions taken by any one of them against parties that engage in fraud, corruption, coercion or collusion in connection with MDB-financed projects. For parties that are seeking financing form an MDB or are competing for contracts funded by an MDB, this means that a sanctionable practice committed in a single country could result in global sanctions. Against this background, this thesis examines the type of due process rights that should characterise MDBs’ sanctions procedures. More particularly, the thesis analyses the extent to which MDBs’ sanctions regimes should be bound by the rules of law, analogous to those of national judicial bodies, and the level of due process and transparency that should be required from these ever-evolving regimes. In other words, (how) can the tension between the administrative and business considerations of MDBs’ sanctions regimes (coupled with their immunity from judicial review) be reconciled with due process considerations and principles of fairness that underpin a national judicial model?

Party autonomy and sovereignty. Historical developments on party autonomy, the evolution of choice of law. The freedom of choice. The freedom not to choose, absence of choice. Limits to the freedom of choice. Limits to the freedom of choice, an expression of sovereignty. Same functions, different results.

Almost eight years after the enactment of the business rescue regime under the Companies Act 71 of 2008, and a plethora of judgments which have probed and prodded its provisions, it is an opportune time to ascertain whether the business rescue regime is an effective corporate rescue mechanism suitable to the modern day demands of the South African economy. In the current economic downturn, South Africa can ill afford a repeat show of the failed judicial management system. It requires a modern and effective corporate rescue mechanism that can be utilised in appropriate circumstances as a viable alternative and not merely a precursor to liquidation. This dissertation seeks to provide a critical analysis of the effectiveness of the business rescue regime to ascertain its worthiness as a corporate rescue mechanism.

The Abuja Treaty is the blueprint and reference point for continental-level economic integration that was first established in 1991 to see to the creation of an African Economic Community (AEC). The Treaty acknowledges that, the African continent, as a unified unit of countries, wields immense power in the international system, in terms of trade and political influence, and thus it seeks to bring to fruition a highly integrated Africa. This study strives to evaluate the progress made on the implementation of the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community (AEC) by comparing two regional blocs, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which serve as 2 of 8 building blocks for the realisation of the AEC. Accordingly, the research method used was qualitative and employed a purposive sampling method that draws on the selection of experts in the field of regional integration to shape the outcome of the study. The research findings include the fact that regional integration, on the continent, has progressed positively although it manifests slowly. Additionally, it found that both the ECOWAS and the ECCAS have progressed in terms of the implementation of the stages of the Abuja Treaty, although the former surpasses the latter in this regard. Yet, in spite of their progress, both RECs have faced challenges unique to their regions. ECOWAS for instance faces the problem of inability to completely enforce protocols on free movement of persons. The lack of national implementation of free movement legislation creates avenues for its ineffectiveness. Border checks are commonplace and there is very little standardization of official forms. ECCAS on the other hand faces a problem of overlapping goals and ideas with CEMAC as well as the failure of member states to carry out agreed decisions within their states due to issues such as conflict and instability in the region. On a whole, the study refutes the common idea that the Abuja Treaty has not been implemented at all but only sees its implementation as slow-paced.

An essential requirement of justice is that it should be dispensed as quickly as possible. It is a well-known adage that, « justice delayed is justice denied». Delay in litigation is caused by a number of factors. For example in litigation the parties have the right to make a counterclaim, right to make appeal etc. Arbitration has been able to overcome the factors which cause delay in litigation because in arbitration, parties are given the right to exclude the possibility to make a counterclaim, the right to make appeal has expressly been prohibited by the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Laws in Africa (OHADA)1 legislator etc. But since the OHADA legislator has not expressly prohibited counter claim in arbitration, it is recommended that counterclaim should be expressly prohibited in arbitration as it is the case with appeal. This article aims at identifying the causes of delay in the disposal of commercial disputes via litigation and how these causes of delay have been combated in arbitration.

The broad objective of the study is to assess the problems of the traditional tax system in Nigeria and establish electronic taxation as a solution to these problems. The study adopted content analysis in analyzing text books, journals, newspapers and other essential materials that were used to obtain the needed information for the study. Extensive review of the literature showed that electronic tax system solves the problem of low tax collection, unavailability of tax statistics and poor record keeping, complex of payment and high cost of tax compliance. The implication of these findings is that an adoption of electronic tax system is an intelligent means of achieving a system of tax administration that allows for the collection and accountability of required taxes at a minimum cost. The study concluded that there are some challenges with the manual system of administering taxes and that modern technology could simplify these challenges and alienate them in the form e-tax. The study therefore recommended that government should support with everything on their disposal the establishment of e-tax administration so as to start ripping the benefit of high rate of compliance among taxpayers at all levels of government in Nigeria.  

In this chapter, I ask whether shares in corporations ought to command more attention within theories of property. Contemporary liberal property theorists typically take land (and sometimes goods) as the basic case of property. Shares tend to be left out of these accounts or treated as imitations or mutations of the basic case. Economists, for their part, have transformed the idea of ownership: ‘owner’ refers to the ultimate beneficiary of the value of assets. Shares are treated as a central case of property by those who take this approach. Shareholders are taken to own the corporation insofar as they are the ultimate beneficiaries of its value. In this chapter, I concede shares do not fit within the traditional property framework. This does not mean, however, that the traditional idea of property is obsolete and that a new property framework is in order.

An effective Dispute Settlement Mechanisms (DSM) upholds a rules-based trade regime; enunciates, clarifies and develops the jurisprudence of its constituent trade agreement; and also ensures predictability in the trading regime. Article 20 of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) establishes the DSM. The AfCFTA Protocol on Dispute Settlement (“Dispute Protocol”) provides for the rules and procedures for the settlement of disputes. Unlike the majority of the African regional economic community courts that are modelled after the Court of Justice of the European Union, the AfCFTA-DSM follows a handful of other regional judicial bodies – such as the Southern African Community Development Community (SADC) and the Tripartite Free Trade Area Agreement (TFTA) – that are modelled after the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism.

The separate legal personality of a company is one of the cornerstones of modern corporate law. Nevertheless, due to the artificial nature of a company it has no inherent moral blameworthiness necessary to impose corporate liability. With a rise in corporate wrongdoing, there is a need to hold companies liable. Therefore, certain models of attribution have developed whereby the conduct and will of a corporate actor can be imputed to the company to establish corporate liability. Especially in the realm of corporate criminal liability, these models of attribution have played a pivotal role to establish corporate wrongdoing. The two broad theories underlying the models of attribution are the fiction and realist theories respectively. The directing minds doctrine or identification doctrine and the vicarious liability model are traditionally associated with the fiction theory, which is rooted in the abstract nature of a company. Whether the traditional models of attribution are suited for complex modern organisational structures, is explored in this thesis, whilst a more functional and realistic approach to corporate liability is proposed. Often the question of “what is a corporation” has overshadowed the determination of corporate liability, thus a more contextual analysis based on law and economics is proposed to ensure corporate liability. The development of the rules of attribution through case law illustrate the importance of a purposive approach to establishing corporate liability. Furthermore, the underlying relationship between the rules of attribution and the rules of agency indicate that the interests of risk-bearers and managers are not always aligned and should be redressed. Moreover, a realist approach as opposed to the fictional approach to attribution has been developed in English and Australian law. This approach focuses on the overarching corporate culture and identity when determining corporate fault, instead of individual corporate actors. These regulatory frameworks provide an alternative approach to the current South African model, which is based on the fiction theory. Lastly, the economic considerations, such as the separation of ownership and control and the agency problem, are evaluated to determine whether the current models of attribution create an economically efficient outcome or an unsustainable a risk-taking environment.

Companies are legal persons and as much part of commercial traffic as the natural persons owning and controlling them. Compared to one another, companies and natural persons nevertheless have very different legal abilities and characteristics. It is therefore not unexpected that they are treated differently for purposes of the law of taxation. As a result it may often be more beneficial to have the profits generated by a business enterprise taxed in a company rather than in the hands of a natural person, especially in instances where a shareholder would be commercially indifferent to whether those profits are generated in a company or not. By using the separate legal personality of a company shareholders may often perpetrate an abuse of that separate legal personality. Such abuse of legal personality can also take place when legal personality is employed primarily for tax reasons. While a limited form of abuse of the corporate veil is tolerated, whether the use of separate legal personality for tax reasons amounts to an abuse thereof beyond what is permitted in South Africa can be determined in terms of three tests. These tests are the traditional “piercing of the corporate veil” judgments forming part of the common law, section 20(9) of the Companies Act 71 of 2008 and the General Anti-Avoidance Rules (“GAARs”) (and other specific provisions) in the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962. This dissertation considers when any of these various tests will dictate that the separate personality of a company be ignored (or “pierced”) for purposes of taxes levied in terms of the Income Tax Act. Through critical analysis of both the South African rules on piercing as applied for tax purposes as well as the circumstances under which selected other jurisdictions provide for piercing for tax reasons the dissertation formulates what best practice and desired policy for piercing for tax reasons are.

ENGLISH ABSTRACT :This dissertation assesses the regulation of takeovers and mergers and the institutions created to enforce the law, from a comparative perspective. It uses South Africa as its point of departure and takes the laws of Delaware in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia into account. The dissertation indicates that numerous takeover provisions in South Africa are poorly formulated, making them difficult to interpret and apply. Accordingly, the dissertation recommends amendment and improvement of certain Takeover Provisions. Special emphasis is placed on the mandatory offer requirement. The dissertation critically and comparatively analyses this requirement and especially its impacts on the market for corporate control, efficient usage of capital, corporate governance and (in South Africa) Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment. It appears from the literature explored that the mandatory offer requirement originated from the Perlman case in the United States as an expression of the equal opportunity rule. According to the equal opportunity rule, the controlling stake of a company is enriched with a premium of control, which must be shared with other shareholders when there is a change of the controlling shareholder. Shareholders must be given an equal opportunity to share in this control premium. Hence, a mandatory offer must be made to the remaining shareholders of the company by the new controlling shareholder at a price at which control was bought. Perlman case was decided in the United States of America during 1955. It is contended in the dissertation, that the mandatory offer requirement in section 123 of the Companies Act 71 of 2008 (“the Act”), can ultimately be traced back to this case. Researchers have criticised the mandatory offer requirement in a number of respects. It has been pointed out that the rationale for the decision in the Perlman case was not clear and applied in limited circumstances. Other scholars point out that the case was not a final decider on the sharing of the control premium due to later judicial pronouncements that differed with that case. Despite these commentaries, it appears that the case became a basis for imposing and enforcing this most debated rule in takeover and merger law. The dissertation concludes that the sharing of a premium of control, as envisaged by the mandatory offer requirement, is not enforced in the state of Delaware. It further concludes that in the UK, the mandatory offer rule forms the cornerstone of enforcement of the equal opportunity rule, but that widely dispersed shareholding ameliorates it negative consequences in that jurisdiction. The dissertation favours the Australian approach. That jurisdiction does not require a mandatory offer similar to that in section 123 of the Act, but, Australian Takeover Provisions, unlike their South African equivalent, have been tailor-made for Australian market conditions. The dissertation accordingly concludes that the mandatory offer requirement in section 123 of the Act in its current form is not appropriate for South Africa.

The definitions of ‘insider’ and ‘inside information’ in the Financial Markets Act 19 of 2012 are, as is the case with their international counterparts, central to the Act’s regulation of insider trading. It has long been recognised, however, that those definitions, inherited from repealed companies and market abuse legislation, are cumbersome and counter-intuitive. This state of affairs obtains as the South African legislature has failed to undertake the most fundamental enquiry in formulating a coherent regulatory scheme aimed at prohibiting supposedly wrongful conduct: identifying a single theory of wrongfulness upon which to base its prohibitions. Instead, the definitions include elements of all possible regulatory bases for insider trading, including those having as their object the protection of proprietary rights in information and born out of the fiduciary doctrine. It is argued that the definitions, part of legislation aimed at addressing a financial market wrong, should be formulated with reference to the rights and obligations at play in those markets and the legislature’s objectives for those markets. A proposal is made in that regard.

L’Afrique jouit non seulement de ressources naturelles, mais aussi d’un grand potentiel de marché. Ces dernières années, il y a une injection croissante d'investissements privés en provenance de Chine vers l’Afrique. La Chine souhaite exploiter le potentiel de l’Afrique en tant que marché émergent grâce aux investissements considérables réalisés par des entreprises privées. Parallèlement, les pays africains ont besoin d'investissements chinois dans divers domaines pour stimuler chaque aspect de leurs économies. L'investissement privé axé sur le marché nécessite un environnement d'investissement ouvert, stable, sécurisé et prévisible. Or, les traités bilatéraux d'investissement (TBI) existants entre la Chine et l'Afrique adoptent le modèle post-établissement axé sur la protection. La plupart de ces traités prévoient simplement des obligations générales de protection des investissements, laissant toutes les autres questions à la discrétion de l’État hôte. Les régimes juridiques instaurés par les TBI conclus entre la Chine et les États africains manquent de lisibilité, de prévisibilité et de cohérence. La conclusion de l'accord économique et commercial global entre l'UE et le Canada (AECG) suggère l’idée que la Chine pourrait s’inspirer de ce modèle pour conclure un accord bilatéral autonome avec les pays africains au niveau régional ou sous régional afin d’attirer des investissements chinois vers l’Afrique. Cet accord pourrait intervenir dans le cadre de l’Organisation pour l’Harmonisation en Afrique du Droit des Affaires (OHADA) étant donné son niveau d’intégration et son autorité en matière de commerce et d’investissement sur le continent. Ce TBI modèle comportera des normes uniformes en matière d’accès aux marchés et de protection des investissements, ce qui limitera les risques d’interprétation divergente et partant, contribuera à l’instauration d’un climat d'investissement stable, sûr, prévisible et plus ouvert.

This study examines the development of mortgage finance in Nigeria and its impact on economic growth. Aggregate housing finance data for by both banks and non-financial institutions was used to measure housing finance. Other variables considered include financial debt proxy by M2Per capita, financial instability proxy Interest rate and the level of development of the capital market measured by market capitalization. Time series data covering the period 1990-2016 was obtained from Central Bank statistical bulletin, National Bureau of Statistic and World Bank. The methodology adopted in the study is Vector Autoregressive Model (VAR) was estimated using linear regression method. The results of the analysis indicated that there is a one-way causal link runs from mortgage finance to economic growth. In addition, mortgage finance was found to be a significant determinant of increasing pattern of economic growth over a long period of time. Due to the level of the country’s financial depth, it was recommended that Nigerian government should intensify effort aimed at consolidating the level of financial re-structuring in the non-financial sector which mortgage financing belong. The central bank should make a policy stipulating commercial banks to set aside certain proportion of their total assets to finance housing demands.