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.

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

[eng] 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.

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.

Even though small and medium enterprises contribute significantly to the growth of national <br>economies, they are vulnerable in their early stages and may fail. Hence younger businesses <br>are more likely to fail than more established ones because they face complex challenges that <br>may limit their viability. This is a notion established in the liability of newness framework. <br>According to the liability of newness concept, the precarious existence of emerging <br>organisations is due to difficulties in managing relationships among strangers, not quickly <br>assembling resources, and not coping with difficult environments, among other issues. All <br>these elements notwithstanding, previous literature suggests that small businesses can, and <br>sometimes do engage in techniques or approaches to help reduce the liability of newness, such <br>as raising adequate capital. This study suggests that not only is adequate capital important but <br>that the right mix of capital also results in higher solvency, thereby mitigating the liability of <br>newness. Because the various funding forms have distinct advantages and disadvantages, an <br>appropriate capital structure reduces the cost of financing while increasing the value of the <br>firm. This study also advances the idea that profitable businesses are productive and financially <br>strong, and thus nascent enterprises with high profitability can minimise the liability of <br>newness. As a result, the study sought to examine the influence of capital structure and <br>profitability on the solvency of nascent small and medium enterprises. To put the study's <br>hypotheses to the test, 1106 nascent small and medium enterprises that are registered with the <br>National Board for Small Scale Industries were sampled across three major cities in Ghana. <br>Thus, data was gathered from every member of the population. Such data, gathered from the <br>SMEs' financial statements, was submitted to preliminary screening as well as a number of <br>statistical measurements. Operationally, the dependent variable, solvency, was defined as the <br>solvency ratio, working capital ratio, and net worth. As a result, three distinct regression models <br>were developed for robustness. The study's findings broadly indicate that capital structure and <br>profitability have an influence on the solvency of nascent small and medium enterprises. The <br>study also determined that emerging small and medium enterprises should follow the principles <br>of the pecking order theory to reduce the liability of newness. These findings, if adopted by <br>SME owners, can aid in the maturation of their fledgling businesses.

This study unveils that the creation of companies in Cameroon is been regulated by the OHADA[1], law under the Uniform Act on Commercial Companies and Economic Interest Groups (UACCEIG) which says, every company must have its own Articles of Association [2]. The Articles of Association is a document that contains the internal regulation for the management of the company’s affairs. [3] The articles of association are the contracts between the shareholders and the company and among the shareholders themselves. [4] The questions raised are what are the requirements common in the Articles of Association of all companies under OHADA Law? What effect do the AOA has? The study adopted an analytical approach which has led to the finding that the AOA under OHADA, is similar to the MOA [5] in most English speaking countries, but a major difference in that UACCEIG has limited the life span of the company to 99years while under English company law, a company goes on for an indefinite period. [6] The life span of the company should not be limited due to the principle of perpetual succession. The UACC seem to have concurred with some aspects of the Common Law, making the UACC an applaudable law reform.

With the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 raging around the world, many countries’ economies are at a crucial juncture. The COVID-19 external shock to the economy has the potential to affect corporate governance profoundly. This Article explores its possible impact on comparative corporate governance. For an economy to operate successfully, a society must first find a politically sustainable social equilibrium. In many countries, historical crises—such as the Great Depression and World War II—have resulted in a reconfiguration of corporate governance institutions that set the course for generations. While it is not yet clear whether COVID-19 will have a similar effect, it is possible that it will change patterns of what kind of firms are -from an evolutionary perspective- likely to survive, and which ones are not. We argue that to some extent, it will accelerate ongoing trends, whereas in other areas it put corporations on an entirely new course. We observe three trends, namely the need for resilience, a growth of nationalist policies in corporate law, and an increasing orientation toward “stakeholder” interests. First, firms will have to become resilient to the crisis and consequently long-term oriented. Corporations that are not operating merely on an arm’s length capital market basis but are integrated into a network, generated by core shareholders, state ownership, or bank lending may be more likely to survive. In addition, firms are beginning to interact with their workforce differently in their attempts to maintain what could be called “healthy human capital.” Second, we are likely to see a resurgence of nationalism in corporate governance to ensure that foreign ownership and interconnected supply chains do not put national security at risk. Third, the existing critiques of inequality but also climate change awareness will accelerate the trend toward a broadening of corporate purpose toward “stakeholderism” and public policy issues. As in the past years, institutional investors acting as “universal owners” will play a role in shaping this trend.

The lack of long-term and stable financial support for SMEs is the fundamental reason why enterprises cannot develop for a long time. At present, the situation of financing difficulties for SMEs is becoming more and more serious. Private equity (PE) investment has emerged as an important financing method. Private equity investment, while broadening the financing channels of SME capital markets, brings advanced management experience to enterprises, which helps enterprises to develop rapidly and effectively. According to the statistics of the Zero2IPO Research Center, the active investment institutions in China's equity market have grown from more than 200 in 2000 to more than 14,000 in 2018, with a total asset under management over RMB 9 trillion. Great progress has been realized in the scale and development of the industry. In addition, with the launch of the GEM in 2009, PE investment industry met new opportunities of development and became popular. At present, the development of China's PE investment business is still at an early stage. Neither relevant policies, laws and regulations nor supporting mechanisms are mature enough. Therefore, researches on China's PE investment business needs to be carried out. In this context, more and more scholars are beginning to focus on the field of PE investment. This paper focuses on whether PE investments can fundamentally increase the enterprise value. The basic theory is sorted out to serve as the theoretical basis for this study. Through a systematic analysis, this paper draws out 4paths of PE investment affecting enterprises, which are the influence on technological innovation, corporate governance activities, dividend distribution decision and earnings management, respectively. And through empirical analysis, it finds the empirical basis of the impact of PE investment on enterprise value, and investigates how PE investments affect enterprise value based on the difference in investment characteristics such as investment duration and whether the investment is joint or not. This paper conducts an empirical test by selecting the listed companies of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange GEM in 2015-2018 as sample. The results show that the investment of PE firm will significantly increase the value of the target enterprise. This paper makes a detailed analysis of sample data. The conclusion of the study is that private equity investment will have a significant impact on the value of target enterprises. Private equity investment plays an important role in the modern governance structure of small and medium-sized enterprises in China This paper enriches the existing literature and provides constructive suggestions for the health development of the PE investment market. 中小企业缺乏长期稳定的资金来源是企业无法长久发展的根本性原因，目前 中小企业融资难的形势越来越严峻，私募股权投资作为一种重要的融资手段应运 而生。私募股权投资在拓宽中小企业资本市场融资渠道的同时，给企业带来先进的 管理经验，有助于企业快速并有效的发展。据清科研究中心的统计数据显示，中国 股权市场活跃的投资机构已由 2000 年的 200 多家发展到 2018 年的 1.4 万多家，管 理资本量超过 9 万亿人民币，行业规模和发展实现了质的飞跃。此外，随着 2009 年创业板的推出，私募股权投资行业的发展业迎来了新的希望和契机，私募股权投 资业务开始盛行。目前，我国私募股权投资业务的发展还处于早期阶段，无论是从 政策还是法律法规再到配套机制，都还不够健全。因此，对我国私募股权投资业务 的研究亟需开展，在此背景下，越来越多的学者开始关注私募股权投资这一领域。 本文研究的重点是私募股权投资是否能够根本上提升企业价值。本文首先对 基础理论进行了梳理，以此作为研究的理论依据，而后论述了私募股权投资对被投 资企业价值影响的理论分析，。本文通过系统的理论分析得出了私募股权投资影响 企业的路径，并通过实证分析，得到私募股权投资对企业价值的影响的实证依据， 并且从投资期限和是否联合投资等投资特征的差异性，深入研究私募股权投资对 企业价值的影响方式。本文通过选取深圳证券交易所创业板 2015-2018 年的上市企 业作为样本，进行了实证检验，并得出以下研究结论:私募股权投资的参与会显著 提升目标企业的价值，同时，私募股权投资的期限越长、联合投资机构的数量越多， 目标企业的价值也会越高。 本文基于理论又结合实际，对样本数据进行了分析，研究的结论是私募股权投 资会对被投资企业的价值产生显著影响。私募股权投资对于我国中小企业的现代 化治理结构起到了完善作用。本文的研究结果丰富了现有文献，对私募股权投资市 场健康发展提出了建设性的建议。

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.