Bibliographie sélective OHADA

LL.D.

It is widely accepted that inter-state relationships have entered an era of globalisation. The economic theory of convergence explains that it is this phenomenon which has spearheaded, amongst others, the development of international rules in the field of trade, finance and taxation.

Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) have proliferated at an unprecedented pace since the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Although the WTO legally recognizes countries’ entitlement to form RTAs, neither the WTO nor parties to RTAs have an unequivocal understanding of the relationship between the WTO and RTAs. In other words, the legal controversies, the result of uncertainty regarding the application of the WTO/GATT laws, risk undermining the objectives of the multilateral trade system. This thesis tackles a phenomenon that is widely believed to be heavily economic and political. The thesis highlights the economic and political aspects of regionalism, but largely concentrates on the legal dimension of regionalism. The main argument of the thesis is that the first step to achieving harmony between multilateralism and regionalism is the identification of the legal uncertainties that regionalism produces when countries form RTAs without taking into account the substantive and procedural aspect of the applicable WTO/ GATT laws. The thesis calls for the creation of a legal instrument (i.e. agreement on RTAs) that combines all of the applicable law on RTAs, and simultaneously clarifies the legal language used therein. Likewise, the WTO should have a proactive role, not merely as a coordinator of RTAs, but as a watchdog for the multilateral system that has the power to prosecute violating RTAs. The author is aware that political concerns are top priorities for governments and policy makers when dealing with the regionalism problematic. Hence, legal solutions or proposals are not sufficient to create a better international trade system without the good will of the WTO Members who are, in fact, the players who are striving to craft more regional trade arrangements.

Libya is a predominately Muslim country where Islamic finance has not yet been established. However, given the current extensive program of financial reform in Libya and the rapid growth and appeal of Islamic finance in comparable economies, there is growing pressure for a system of Islamic finance to be provided. There is then a pressing need for research into the prospects for Islamic finance from a consumer and provider perceptive to inform this debate and thereby meet the needs of policymakers, financial service providers and prospective users. Accordingly, this study of Libyan attitudes towards Islamic methods of finance, the first study attempted in the Libyan context and one of few studies globally, applies a model derived from the Theory of Reasoned Action to analyse attitudes towards Islamic finance. The particular focus is to understand how the Theory of Reasoned Action can be used for predicting and understanding attitudes towards the potential use of Islamic methods of finance by Libyan retail consumers, business firms and banks. Four main research questions are posed to address this objective. First, does awareness of Islamic methods of finance influence attitudes towards the use of Islamic finance? Second, do socioeconomic, demographic and other factors influence attitudes towards Islamic finance? Third, what are the principal motivating factors towards the potential use of Islamic finance? Finally, is religion the major influence on the likelihood of engaging in Islamic finance? Three surveys of 385 retail consumers, 296 business firms and 134 bank managers in Libya are conducted in 2007/08 to achieve this objective. Descriptive analysis and multivariate statistical analysis (including factor analysis, discriminant analysis and binary logistic regressions) are used to analyse the data. The principal findings are that awareness of Islamic methods of finance and socioeconomic, demographic and business characteristics are key determinants of the likelihood of the use of Islamic finance. Further, religion plays a key, though not the only, role in influencing these attitudes. The thesis findings are of key importance in informing future financial industry practice and financial policy formation in Libya.

E-commerce refers to all forms of commercial transactions that involve individuals and organizations based on the electronic processing of data. Mobile commerce (M-commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services using mobile telephones or personal digital assistants (PDA). M-commerce is emerging in Africa and South Africa especially as either a complement or an alternative to e-commerce as originally conceived, though there are arguments that mobile telephone technology “m-commerce” will surpass “e-commerce” as the method of choice for digital commerce transactions. This paper identifies the challenges in adopting e-commerce/m-commerce practices for economic development and competition in International trade. The liberalisation of the telecommunications sector on which e-commerce and m-commerce practices depend is being given priority by the majority of African governments. Despite advances in e-commerce and m-commerce practices in Africa, the growth of e-commerce and m-commerce has been slow. Impediments include low levels of internet penetration and limited communication infrastructure. To meet this problem, the UN adopted through the UN Commission on International Trade (UNCITRAL), Model Law on E-Commerce to help in the harmonisation of e-commerce/m-commerce related laws. Challenges are identified and recommendation made on how to improve the regulatory framework and create an environment conducive to investment and economic development.

With growing importance attached to the notion of executive remuneration, OHADA’s policy makers have also considered the concept as a fundamental element in any corporate governance system. In this regard, they have put in place a policy framework that regulates executive remuneration within OHADA’s corporate system to ensure that executive benefits are appropriate and lawful to enable directors remain objective in respect of their fiduciary duties towards the company. This paper discusses executive remuneration as an aspect of corporate governance under OHADA's corporate system. In doing so, the paper describes the executive remuneration policy under OHADA's corporate system and makes an appraisal of the abovementioned policy with the goal of stating its potential and limitation as well as proposing a reform that will guarantee its effectiveness as a mechanism in ensuring good corporate governance.

In a progressive income tax system with an individual tax unit, high-rate taxpayers have an incentive to split income with lower-rate family members to minimise the family’s total tax burden. This raises equity and neutrality concerns. Adopting a spousal tax unit limits the gains from income splitting, but the individual is the better choice on privacy, autonomy, equality, definitional, marriage neutrality and work incentive grounds. Once the individual is chosen as the income tax unit, the control model provides a strong policy basis for attributing both earned and unearned income to individuals. Income splitting, however, undermines this model as well as the individual tax unit. This thesis focuses on the UK’s approach to income-splitting in family businesses. The relevant UK income tax rules, particularly the settlements provisions, are inadequate for the task. Various possible reforms are examined. Incorporating a transfer pricing or ‘reasonableness’ test into the settlements provisions would strengthen these rules, but would make taxpayer compliance with an uncertain regime even more difficult. Another option is to expand the scope of employment tax by moving the borderline between employees and the self-employed or companies. Deeper structural reforms could be made to enhance the neutrality of taxation on different legal forms of economic activity. This would reduce the incentives to incorporate for tax savings, including from income splitting. Integration of income tax and NICs is one such option; a dual income tax is another. A TAAR or GAAR also could be pursued. Ultimately, some combination of these various reform options could provide a partial solution to this challenging issue.

This thesis focuses on the interaction of two categories of non-state actors, private sector corporate actors and non-governmental organizations, with states in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO) through a lens of public international law. It builds on the premise that the notion of states as the only subjects of international law is not adequate for a modern system of global governance, as it does not reflect the realities of fast-paced globalization and increased co-operation in a world where the boundaries of the private and public are increasingly blurred. It does not necessarily provide solutions for participation of non-state actors in the WTO, but demonstrates that developments in international relations warrant more space for participation of non-state actors, and that the current system of the WTO fails to provide sufficient space for participation. The thesis argues that, for both historical and pragmatic reasons, developments in the areas of GATT and international trade law occurred outside their natural course, leading to the myth of a “self-contained” trade regime not part of public international law. The WTO, unlike its predecessor, enjoys a proper institutional framework and mandate; one can no longer use the excuse of institutional handicap for excluding it from the system of global governance. Liberalization of international trade has far-reaching consequences which are not limited to the trade arena and the WTO, its member states, and scholars of international trade law have to assume their role in the broader context of an international legal order. Non-state actors’ formal participation can contribute to striking a balance between different forces and interests at work in the area of trade liberalization and its interplay with other non-trade issues. After setting the framework for the study, the thesis outlines modes of participation of non-state actors in the creation and modification of WTO law as well as in its enfor

My main theoretical contention is that status hierarchies provide a source of guidance to firms for resolving disputes. A status hierarchy implies a system of deference rules among firms. When disputes arise, deference rules can provide a basis for shared expectations and protocols of conduct about how technical ambiguities should be resolved. In many contexts, technical merit is difficult to assess. However, deference rules can operate as social conventions to which firms default, helping to align potentially incompatible expectations. Within this general framework, my dissertation examines how competitors in the semiconductor industry manage uncertain and frequently overlapping patent rights. In practice, patent rights are highly imperfect legal instruments when it comes to demarcating each firm's contributions to innovation in the industry. Patent disputes arise because of the ambiguity this creates about how much of the collective market returns to innovation each firm is entitled to receive. Despite the prolific patenting and propensity for disputes, the industry has remarkably not ground to a halt from runaway litigation. Litigation events, while significant, are rare. I suggest that this degree of order is, at least partly, attributable to status processes. Status can operate as a stabilizing force in the market, helping to generate orderly competition in the face of disputes. To examine whether this is the case in the semiconductor industry, I theorize that disputes are less easily resolved when the parties involved face greater status ambiguity, i.e. are less clearly differentiated from one another in status. Under status ambiguity, deference rules lose the rule-like, universal quality that makes them persuasive in resolving disputes. This has two consequences. First, firms facing low status ambiguity are less likely to be involved in patent litigation than are firms facing high status ambiguity. Patent litigation events represent failures to resolve patent disputes out of court. Second, firms facing low status ambiguity increase their product line sizes more than do firms facing high status ambiguity. The threat of difficult-to-resolve patent disputes represents a cost that can deter firms from bringing products to market.

This paper seeks to assess the extent to which the provisions of the Uniform Act dealing with demand guarantees meet the OHADA objective of modernisation to facilitate commercial activity. It notes that in general those provisions are to be welcomed as a helpful contribution towards the aforementioned OHADA objectives. However, it argues that there is scope for some improvement and that a revision of the provisions is desirable, primarily to give the parties greater commercial flexibility by allowing them more freedom of contract and to reduce the areas of uncertainty and confusion. It is proposed to consider the key benefits brought about by the Uniform Act before identifying and explaining the main areas of concern.

International Economic law (IEL) has a specific role to play in a complex modern Africa. The underdeveloped state of trade law regimes in Africa is arguably a reflection and product of the low level of commercial activity. The reverse is equally true in that underdevelopment in commercial activity on the continent is a reflection and product of the minimal role played thus far by international economic law.

Good corporate governance should be the cornerstone of all company management. Directors ought to know in whose interests the company should be managed. This thesis attempts to answer the following question: whose interests must be granted primacy in the management of a company? In chapter 1 it is stated that shareholders' interests are traditionally granted primacy in the management of a company. There has, however, been a shift in public opinion towards recognition of a wider variety of interests that should be considered than only those of the shareholders. These interests include, inter alia, environmental interests and those of the investors, employees and consumers. This thesis thus focuses on the primary stakeholders, namely individual shareholders, creditors, employees, consumers and suppliers. In chapter 2 a theoretical foundation is provided on the nature of a company. The different theories on the nature of a company, emphasising either shareholder primacy or stakeholder protection, are discussed. A combined new theory is proposed. It is suggested that the confusion relating to the meaning of "the company" needs to be eliminated. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 provide an international comparison of the company law in Botswana, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The focus falls, firstly, on directors' duties, secondly, on the question in whose interests directors should manage a company and, thirdly, on the codification of their duties. In chapter 6 the South African position is evaluated. First, the possible stakeholders are identified and the protection currently afforded them is explained. The reports of the King Committee on Corporate Governance, the Policy Document on company law reform as well as the Companies Bill of 2007 are discussed. Draft clauses are recommended to be incorporated in new company legislation to provide directors with clarity on what is expected of them. It is the aim of this thesis to provide clarity on whose interests should receive primacy when directors manage a company. The outcome of this research should provide a clear indication to South African directors of what is expected of them and who the beneficiaries of their fiduciary duties are.

You don't plant water lilies in the desert - The keystone of civilized society is justice. Without justice, neither peace nor development. A prerequisite is the populations' trust in legal institutions: the law and the courts. The alienation of the people with imposed legal institutions is the reason for Francophone Africa's lack of justice. To remedy the situation, this paper proposes to reconnect the people with the law through: (1) respecting local values in Village tribunals; (2) reforming lawmaking to comply with custom, accessible (also) in vernacular languages; (3) accessibility of law through the Internet. It is argued that the people, as client of justice, need to regain control over their law in order to respect it. Only then the necessary change of traditions and values is feasible. Women lawyer associations are identified as agents for such change. To redress modern courts, the paper suggests a concentration of tribunals, a tightening of procedure and rigorous control, in order to foster peer pressure for professionalism. The constitutional values are to serve as common bond.

Regulating telecommunications is complex: international experience indicates that there is no 'successful' regulatory framework due to the balancing of industry and regulatory interests (Laffont & Tirole, 2000, p. 13). The New Zealand 'light-handed' regulatory experiment failed and the 1999 General Election presented an opportunity for change in telecommunications. The Labour-led Government in implementing a policy of 'responsible re-regulation' enacted the Telecommunications Act 2001, signalling the passage of "landmark telecommunications legislation ..." (Swain, 2001d). Within the Telecommunications Act 2001, 'cost' assumed a central regulatory role. It is this move to cost that this thesis considers in identifying, developing, and critiquing the interface of law and accounting. The thesis examines the increasing call for accounting information in law and regulation by interrogating the use, presentation, and reception of accounting to examine the interface between law and cost in the regulation of telecommunications. The Telecommunications Act 2001 incorporates total service long run incremental costing as the 'costing technique' for interconnection access and annual net costing for the Telecommunications Service Obligation. Through interrogating 'cost' as an accounting technology, in contrast to the economic and legal conception of cost as a simple, objective concept, the thesis illustrates the role of cost at methodological, technical, and political levels, and the challenges that this poses for telecommunications regulation. The thesis articulates the relevance of discourse theory to the interface of law and accounting. Consequently, the thesis investigates the formation and discursive enunciation of standpoints of political identities characterised by antagonism and uncertainty. This includes identifying attempts by interested parties, including industry actors, stakeholders, and the Government and its agents, to articulate 'new' discourses centred on nodal points around 'cost'. The rhetorical analysis examines how actors articulate the metaphorical element of 'cost' in agitating for particular costing methods to be included in the legislation. The empirical analysis examines the process of rhetorical condensation as arguments for and against the incorporation of total service long run incremental costing and net costing came to signify the complete failure of the light-handed regulation. Then, by examining the politics following the enactment of legislation, this condensation is unpacked. The analysis of the contestation over interpreting and implementing the regulation illustrates displacement of the 'common' signifier resulting in confusion and disappointment in relation to the aims of the new regulatory regime.

This paper is premised upon acceptance of the view that some form of harmonisation of laws in Africa is a desirable objective and that comparative legal research is a tool that might effectively be applied in order to further the objective of harmonisation. That said, the time has come for comparatists in Africa to think afresh on the issues of globalisation and the need for harmonisation of laws in Africa, with a view to promoting peace, stability and scope for increased development in the region through greater regional economic co-operation.

Performance requirements are part of a system of policy measures implemented by states to advance their economic, social and political objectives. A universally agreed upon definition of performance requirements is not available. Rather they are defined by the applicable legal norms and their assessment is dependent upon their effect on the parties of each individual case. The scope of legal protection these regulations provide must be measured separately for each norm within the scope of the specific legal framework. This dissertation has two objectives: First, the implementation and legal effect of performance requirements in international investment and trade law are investigated. Secondly, a legal test will be developed, that allows for an assessment of performance requirements. In a first step, the legal treatment of performance requirements will be analyzed from a theoretical perspective. Subsequently, the legal practices relating performance requirements and the relevant provisions in international investment and trade law will be identified. The developed legal test does not only do justice to the economic, social and political framework within which each performance requirement must be looked at but is also adaptable in a way that it can be applied to a variety of situations and legal traditions. It satisfies both the demands of legal certainty and clarity as well as facilitating the finding of justice on an individual basis. Understanding the advantages of foreign direct investment, the analysis performed aims promote the usage of performance requirements in a way that foreign direct investment will push the global economy forward.