Bibliographie sélective OHADA

Corporate law is in a moment of vibrant and contentious discussions about potential reforms. As firms exit Delaware, passive investment predominates, private equity expands, and public markets decline, corporate law faces a growing set of challenges that threaten its stability and efficacy. At the same time, the world faces pressing crises, including climate change, social and economic inequalities, and threats to democracy, though corporate law scholars typically consider these crises to be outside corporate law’s remit. In this Article, we argue that to understand and address the multidimensional crises that face both corporate law and society, we must address shortcomings in corporate law doctrine. We show how modern corporate law, shaped by neoclassical economic theories, provides an incomplete picture of the firm, and we propose an expanded theoretical perspective that draws from organization theory, a field long dedicated to understanding the complexities of the firm. This updated perspective demonstrates how firms actually consist of multiple constituents, including workers, the environment, and shareholders, who invest different forms of capital in the firm: labor capital, natural capital, and financial capital. It further shows that modern corporate law entrenches problematic power imbalances, privileging boards and insider shareholders over workers, the environment, and minority shareholders. Moreover, building on organization theory, we explain how corporate law fundamentally shapes and constrains firm behavior, leading these entrenched power imbalances to generate far-reaching negative consequences. To address these shortcomings, we propose redesigning board representation, fiduciary duties, and executive compensation to empower workers, the environment, and minority shareholders in relation to boards and insider shareholders. Integrating the organizational and economic perspectives can help address problematic power imbalances and ultimately provide a more effective corporate law framework to govern firms and serve society.

OHADA Law plays a crucial role in fostering economic growth and regional integration by harmonizing business regulations in the era of globalization and trade liberalization. This study examines the legal framework surrounding company membership under OHADA Law. While certain individuals such as legally incapacitated persons or those facing legal prohibitions cannot become company members, the law provides alternative solutions. The study explores the distinction between members and shareholders and clarifies the eligibility criteria for company membership. Using an analytical approach, this research finds that any natural or corporate entity, unless restricted by legal incapacity, prohibition, or incompatibility, can be a company member under OHADA Uniform Act. Furthermore, the law offers flexibility for incapacitated individuals by allowing legal representatives to act on their behalf.

Whistleblower protection is necessary to reduce mismanagement in private and public organisations worldwide. The protection of whistleblowers is a complex and particularly challenging task that it is up to national authorities. The research methodology is the literature review. In this context, reputable scientific journals, reports from international organisations and websites dealing with the research field of whistleblowers are studied. The main conclusions are that there is an institutional framework for the functioning and protection of whistleblowers, but best practices are not fully implemented. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the use of whistleblowers is extremely high in detecting fraud and high public risks compared to other audit techniques. For this reason, the protection and framework of the whistleblower process is increasingly being legislated for by more and more countries as their importance is recognised. Finally, monitoring the use of whistleblowers and applying best practices and criteria for their effectiveness will make their use more effective.

In this Article, I analyze the expanding common law doctrine of shareholder ratification, whereby shareholder approval can, for all practical purposes, absolve directors of fiduciary liability for their conflicted business decisions. Delaware law now allows a shareholder vote to perform substantially more work than ever before. Under prevailing doctrine, in transactions between a company and any party other than a controlling shareholder, shareholder ratification reinstates the business judgment rule and makes it irrebuttable, other than for waste. Substantive judicial review is effectively avoided for such transactions. Despite its extraordinary importance in corporate governance, the shareholder ratification doctrine’s foundations are feeble and its limits uncertain. Theoretically, there is no well-established basis for equating shareholder approval with either the informed, disinterested, and good-faith decision of a board or judicial review. Doctrinally, shareholder ratification’s expansion beyond its traditional context of self-dealing has been a judicial innovation, rather than an elaboration of precedent. And historically, the shareholder ratification doctrine, which originated in early 20th-century state interesteddirector statutes, was motivated by fairness principles that were lost in translation into the common law. This Article recovers the fairness genealogy of the shareholder ratification doctrine and, in doing so, provides useful guidance for the doctrine’s development, limits, and future application.

This article examines corporate governance in Africa and its significance for corporate repurposing. It relies on the framework of the Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa (OHADA), which unites seventeen African states under one corporate law jurisdiction while exploring how the interpretation and practice of this legal system can be integrated with or influenced by national sectoral laws and cultural norms. The workings of these different legal sources denote the case for heterodox pluralism of corporate purpose, whereby corporate membership is not tethered to shareholding only, but the workforce and neighbouring too and corporate legitimacy is not merely a function of legal arrangements but equally derives from broader society. The governance of corporations in Africa must correspond to such imperatives to ensure that the prevailing shareholder primacy norm does not continue its unencumbered de facto reign and reduce African stakeholderism to comparative impotence and mere scholarly exercise.

Although Zimbabwe has established several institutions to combat money laundering and related crimes, there is a perception that inadequate measures are taken to apprehend offenders responsible for financial crimes. Institutions such as the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) have done little to prove that the government of Zimbabwe is resolute in combatting money laundering. On the contrary, it increasingly appears that these institutions are poorly equipped and lack the necessary capacity to enforce and uphold anti-money laundering (AML) measures in Zimbabwe. Further, there appears to be a selective application of the law, with one set of rules for individuals or institutions that are perceived as political adversaries of the incumbent establishment and a different set of rules for the political elite. Consequently, the selective application of the law projects Zimbabwe as a jurisdiction that is somehow tolerant to money laundering, corruption and related financial crimes, thereby lowering and tarnishing the standing of the country in the global economic community of nations. This paper provides a regulatory analysis of the AML role-players in Zimbabwe in order to assess their functions in combatting financial crimes. It also analyses whether these role-players are effective and substantively executing their responsibilities therein. The authors argue that while Zimbabwe is well able to effectively combat money laundering through the even application of the law to all persons regardless of their political or economic standing, it is imperative that its AML institutions operate without fear, favour or prejudice. This is crucial in combatting money laundering and instilling confidence in the general public's perception of AML institutions in Zimbabwe.

Despite the emergence of corporate governance as a formal discipline more than thirty years ago, the proliferation internationally of scholarly work on the topic and its formal regulation over this period, the scope, definition and direction of corporate governance remain contested. Company theories could potentially assist in this regard but have been inconsistent in their explanations of the both the means and ends of corporate governance. This has led to scepticism about the efficacy of theories to illuminate the phenomena associated with companies and company law. Notwithstanding, theory is critical as it makes explicit what is implicit in policymaking by regulators, as well as in the behaviour and decision-making by corporate actors, so that regulation and decisions are transparent for analysis and evaluation. The study, therefore, set out to provide a synthesis and doctrinal analysis of the main theories on the nature and general purpose of corporations in historical context. It was found that objections can be raised against all of these theories to a greater or lesser extent for inaccurate portrayal of the law, limited explanatory power and detachment from the real word. This study shows that corporate theories are a product of the settings in which they have developed and consequently none of these theories represents a universal or absolute truth, nor are they an inevitability due to widespread adoption and use. This leaves room for new formulations of the corporate form and its purpose fit for today’s context with its political, social and environmental challenges. This dissertation also includes further directions for theoretical exploration.

This paper constitutes a composite analysis of the legal framework and procedures for removing directors and the key challenges presented by the framework. It achieves this by looking at four legal questions: Firstly, it looks into what is the legal framework for director removal in South Africa, secondly, it delves into the challenges and/or uncertainties presented by this process, and further explores if there are any possible learnings South Africa can learn from foreign jurisdiction.

Sharing economy companies (sharecoms) have been internationalising rapidly, including entering African markets. Little research has been conducted on the strategies and behaviours of African sharecoms. Questions have been raised as to whether existing theories adequately explain the internationalisation of African firms. Thus, we analyse the internationalisation patterns of six African sharecoms, focusing on time, speed, and scope. The findings indicate that firms apply unique combinations of various internationalisation models. A novel pattern of internationalisation where the firms use “foreign gateway markets” as strategic “launchpads” before rapidly internationalising was also uncovered. Locational advantages, strategic networks, and relative technological advancement characterise the foreign gateway markets. We also propose the concept of “complex regional context” to define the context of emerging regions with many neighbouring countries with the potential for high levels of internationalisation but low levels of international business due to the lack of common enabling frameworks and institutions.

This is an accepted manuscript of a book chapter in the edited volume: Big Data and Armed Conflict: Legal Issues Above and Below the Armed Conflict Threshold

In law it is common to encounter two separate pieces of legislation which govern a single matter or transaction, for example, the Companies Act 71 of 2008 (the Companies Act) and the Securities Transfer Act 25 of 2007 both of which address the sale of shares. Similarly, the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962 (the Income Tax Act) and the Companies Act both have regulations which govern, respectively, tax law and company law matters in South Africa. These two Acts overlap in various business and commercial fields as tax is frequently an important component of any business transaction undertaken by a company. Issues, however, arise when the regulations in these two Acts, are inconsistent. This can be observed if one compares the current South African Income Tax and Companies Act, specifically as regards the sections involving merger and amalgamation transactions. Section 44 of the Income Tax Act governs merger and amalgamation transactions from a tax perspective and provides for tax rollover relief if certain requirements are met. The regulations governing mergers and amalgamations under the Companies Act are contained in sections 113, 115 and 116 of the Act. Although these sections in both Acts address the same transaction – a merger or amalgamation between two or more companies – there are several discrepancies between the regulations in the two Acts which appear to operate entirely independently of one another. In practice, one often sees that other sections in the Companies Act and Income Tax Act are used to achieve a merger due, in the main, to the uncertainties in the application of the relevant merger sections in the two Acts and the limited interaction between them. This study identifies and assesses the impact of the discrepancies identified in these two Acts in relation to merger and amalgamation transactions. The study makes recommendations to address these discrepancies and to align the South African Companies Act and Income Tax Act as regards merger/amalgamation transactions.

Groups of companies are a complex corporate structure, whose regulation can be problematic, especially when it comes to liability. Indeed, liability within corporate groups draws forth a series of issues principally due to the principles of separate corporate personality and limited liability. In the context of limited liability, which is based on the notion of separate legal personality, the main issue waxes the protection of the creditors, in particular the creditors of the subsidiaries. One can find three regulatory templates for handling corporate groups and their liability: policing via general company and/or civil law (such as the English model); policing via special group legislation (such as the German model); and policing via branches of law such as insolvency law, antitrust law, and contract law, among others (which is the case in numerous jurisdictions, either coupled with the first or the second model). Lifting the corporate veil has come as an answer to corporate separateness, by permitting to ignore the shareholders’ limited liability and hold them personally liable for the debts of their companies in specific circumstances. However, one can hardly find cases in which the corporate veil has been successfully lifted, due to many factors. Other important questions that are posed in the scope of corporate groups liability are the parent company’s liability for the payment of its daughter companies’ debts when insolvency strikes and other respects, besides the matter of group liability. Furthermore, liability is as well a key player in terms of tort law, and corporate social responsibility has therefore found a place in the sun in the present climate.

Recent scandals have brought rankings to the forefront of the legal profession. Several of the most prestigious academic institutions have withdrawn from being ranked, citing the problematic nature of the rankings. However, rankings persist for both legal academics and practice, and there is substantial sentiment to improve the methodologies, with little detail as to how to improve. In this paper, we rank law firms on their clients’ IPO performance. We focus on the most relevant outcomes: litigation, first-day returns, disclosure, and legal fees. The focus on these measures provides benefits relative to other methodologies, which typically focus on inputs or size-related characteristics. Namely, this ranking is less manipulable and more accurately captures performance metrics that matter most to clients’ shareholders. Our rankings control for observable and unobservable deal characteristics, which helps ensure we capture law firm quality, not client traits. With the rankings based on legal fees, potential clients can compare the benefits of a particular law firm (e.g., lower litigation or higher selling prices) against the additional cost of hiring a higher-quality law firm. Hence, our rankings allow for a value-for-the-money comparison of law firms for clients selling shares in an IPO.

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have recently gained prominence in global markets and feature among the world’s most influential enterprises. The aim of this research project is to analyse the international norms in force regulating whether SOEs are considered state or non- state actors, and their conduct state or non-state conduct, the interpretation and application of these norms by adjudicators in different international regimes, and to provide alternative prisms through which these rules and decisions can be assessed and re-thought by political actors. I show that, in relation to SOEs, the concepts ‘state and ‘act of state’ have been ascribed diverse meanings by adjudicators and other international actors, who have employed legal standards with divergent wording and thresholds when dealing with similar questions. I argue that the fragmented meaning of these terms should be understood, in part, as a result of the inherent malleability of these terms and the different expert vocabularies employed across regimes. It is exhibited that adjudicators in the international trade and investment regimes are more inclined towards piercing the corporate veil of SOEs, potentially evidencing the existence of biases against SOEs, which are perceived as inherently economically inefficient and politically motivated actors in an indiscriminatory manner. In the last chapter, I introduce alternative lines of thought regarding the regulation of SOEs in international law. I suggest that, instead of engaging in theoretical discussions on the proper delineation between the public and the private sector, it is more useful to focus on the distributional impact of international rules on various actors, especially on developing and emerging economies where the presence of SOEs is very high. Such alternative prisms of analysis open paths for future research and practice, with the goal of designing an international economic order that incentivises institutional experimentation in the pursuit of economic development and distributional equity.

Phoenix activity involves conduct whereby a failing company (the old company) is replaced by a second company (the new company) in the operation of the same or a similar business and that involves the same or similar company controllers. Transactions of this nature can be legal and even be beneficial to society, since entrepreneurs who pursue a viable business may, if the new company succeeds, benefit the economy and many other stakeholders. These transactions are referred to as legal phoenix activity. Problems arise however when phoenix activity is engaged in with the goal of evading the debt of the old company, known as illegal phoenix activity. In other cases, even well-intentioned company controllers can cause significant harm by resurrecting a fundamentally flawed business. This conduct, although not illegal, is unduly prejudicial to stakeholders and is known as problematic phoenix activity. While this thesis focuses on illegal phoenix activity, several measures identified should also curb problematic phoenix activity. This study identifies the elements and common characteristics of illegal phoenix activity. It then analyses regulation pertaining to those elements and common characteristics with the aim of finding effective solutions to the problem. This includes evaluating measures that reverse prejudicial transactions that occur during illegal phoenix activity as well as holding complicit parties, such as company controllers and the new company, accountable for their actions. Regulation aimed at preventing and investigating illegal phoenix activity is also considered. This thesis uses the comparative legal approach to analyse regulatory responses to illegal phoenix activity. Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America are examined. Several reported cases in South Africa involving what appear to be illegal phoenix activity are explored, along with the existing measures that are applicable to illegal phoenix activity in South Africa. A single anti-phoenix provision is undesirable as it has the potential to unjustifiably infringe on legal phoenix activity. This thesis proposes a multi-pronged approach, which involves a combination of better enforcement of existing laws and the introduction of smaller targeted amendments to legislation aimed at reducing the incidence illegal phoenix activity.

This open-access book brings together international experts who shed new light on the status of social enterprises, benefit corporations and other purpose-driven companies. The respective chapters take a multidisciplinary approach (combining law, philosophy, history, sociology and economics) and provide valuable insights on fostering social entrepreneurship and advancing the common good. In recent years, we have witnessed a significant shift of how business activities are conducted, mainly through the rise of social enterprises. In an effort to target social problems at their roots, social entrepreneurs create organizations that bring transformative social changes by considering, among others, ethical, social, and environmental factors. A variety of social enterprise models are emerging internationally and are proving their vitality and importance. But what does the term “social enterprise” mean? What are its roots? And how does it work in practice within the legal framework of any country? This handbook attempts to answer these questions from a theoretical, historical, and comparative perspective, bringing together 44 contributions written by 71 expert researchers and practitioners in this field. The first part provides an overview of the social enterprise movement, its evolution, and the different forms entities can take to meet global challenges, overcoming the limits of what governments and states can do. The second part focuses on the emergence of benefit corporations and the growing importance of sustainability and societal values, while also analyzing their different legal forms and adaptation to their regulatory environment. In turn, the last part presents the status quo of purpose-driven companies in 36 developed and emerging economies worldwide. This handbook offers food for thought and guidance for everyone interested in this field. It will benefit practitioners and decision-makers involved in social and community organizations, as well as in international development and, more generally speaking, social sciences and economics.

The composition of the Board of Directors is commonly presented as an understandable variable for its effectiveness. However, the work that examined the relationship between the composition and effectiveness of the Board is not characterized, as they require about whether or not certain categories of directors (internal, external, independent) are relevant and the related empirical results are mixed. This work examines the relationship between the characteristics of the board of directors and its effectiveness in a type of business that is very common in the world, respecting the family business. Thus, the problem that this study tries to solve is to identify the characteristics of the board of directors that can contribute to its effectiveness in Cameroonian family businesses. We found that the size of the Board, the presence of external directors, and the cumulative management and control functions appear to have an impact on the effectiveness of the Board.

The COVID-19 crisis, in addition to its serious health impact, has negatively affected key socio-economic aggregates and has shocked the strategic planning of all economic and social actors, including local communities. In search of resilient, skillful and intelligent good territorial governance, the municipalities are working to adapt their governance systems to the new social and environmental priorities. This work proposes a new reading of the acquired approaches to good governance, a new paradigm related to the new conjuncture and an assessment of the performance system at the central and local levels

Africa is often depicted in the literature as the ‘patron late to the party’ on account of her low uptake of corporate governance codes. Notwithstanding, countries that have an existing corporate governance code continue to exhibit weak corporate accountability and governance practices. This prompted a critical analysis based on a detailed review of published articles and existing codes in the African multiple-contexts. Our findings reveal that the efficacy of many codes remains very limited in terms of pragmatic outcomes whilst firms in countries that have adopted codes continue to face uneven performance and poor accountability. We conclude by urging for an understanding of the reasons underlying such results. We recommend an African led re-think (independence, ownership, board processes) of existing codes to make them more aligned with the governance needs of African firms and their complex sociocultural background. We call for further research to illuminate Africa’s actual governance experiences and necessities.

Dans un contexte marqué par le développement durable, le législateur OHADA n’a eu de cesse d’être accablé de toutes parts pour son statisme vis-à-vis de la montée des problématiques sociétales. Au lendemain des reformes du système comptable OHADA, les problématiques sociétales ont une fois de plus raté le rendez-vous de la normalisation. Toutefois, de nombreuses entreprises continuent à publier leurs informations sociétales parallèlement à leur communication financière. A cet effet, le problème que soulève cet article est celui de la compréhension des modes de production et de diffusion des informations extra-financières en l’absence d’une réglementation en la matière. Une étude empirique de nature descriptive est menée auprès d’un échantillon de 120 entreprises diffusant leurs informations sociétales au sein de l’espace OHADA. Il en ressort que le site internet et l’implication dans le développement de la communauté locale sont apparue respectivement comme support et thème de diffusion les plus utilisés dans l’espace OHADA en matière de reporting sociétal sous la pression de certaines parties prenantes notamment les associations consuméristes, les départements ministériels en charge de l’environnement, du travail et de la sécurité sociale. In a context marked by a widespread awareness of the needs of sustainable development, the OHADA legislator has been constantly burdened on all sides for its statism to the rise of societal problems. However, After the reform of the OHADA system, sustainability problems once more did not met up with the appointment of normalization. However, several enterprises continue to publish their societal information in parallel with their financial communication. As such, the problem raised by this article is that of understanding the mode of production and disclosure of non-financial information in the absence of a regulatory framework. A descriptive empirical analysis is carried out with a sample of 120 enterprises which propagate their societal information in the OHADA zone. It reveals that internet websites and implication in the development of the local community are respectively the medium and theme of the most used disclosures in the OHADA zone with regards to sustainability reporting under the pressure of some stakeholders especially consumer associations, ministerial departments in charge of the environment labor and social security.