Bibliographie sélective OHADA

Banks are one of the most important elements in the economic cycle of modem society. As money replaced bartering banks have gradually moved into the pivotal point of the relations between participants in the economic cycle. No project can be realized without money today. On the one hand, there are the investors who, irrespective of the amount, entrust their assets to the banks. On the other hand, there are those whose financial needs require the granting of some form of credit. Banks operating in these contexts clearly bear important responsibilities towards the different parties. A third party, the state, is also interested in a well-functioning banking establishment. Economic stability, without which there can be no political stability, cannot otherwise be ensured. The state is accordingly keenly interested in maintaining the operability of this system. To this end, various laws are made in the respective countries aimed at supervising the banking industry. This work deals with some of the legislation relating to bank supervision in the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of South Africa. In the various chapters certain aspects of bank supervision in the two countries are identified, juxtaposed and compared. The reasons for any differences are sought, discussed and where possible explained. From a historical point of view, the two countries developed differently. Nevertheless, the need to regulate this sector through legislative means arose at an early stage in both. Unfortunately, the catalyst for legislative development was mostly some or other financial crisis. Any measures for supervising banks must, to be binding, be constitutional. In this regard much must still be done in South Africa due to the fact that the New Constitution has only been in force since 1996. Thus certain regulations stemming from the Banks Act 90 of 1994 need to be reconsidered in the light of the constitution. Bank supervisory activity is performed by a national institution in both countries. Germany avails itself of an independent authority. However, in South Africa it is one of the tasks of the central bank which has established a specific office for this purpose. Legal and natural persons alike are subject to such supervision. Diverse other government institutions provide support for such supervisory work in both countries. The scope of banking supervision, that is the persons and transactions affected, is broad and also finely meshed. Both systems list a number of banking transactions that are subject to their supervision. This affects all domestic banks and all foreign banks that are domestically active. Access to the banking business is only permitted in both countries after an appropriate license has been granted. The license can be conditional. Moreover, both systems make provision for the revocation of the license in appropriate circumstances. The conducting of banking business without the necessary permission is forbidden in both countries under the threat of legal punishment. It is well recognized in modem society that legal subjects should be protected against the decisions of those who wield state power. The possible remedies of those affected by the decisions of the public authorities responsible for banking supervision in the different countries are investigated in conclusion.

Corporate governance is defined as the system by which companies are managed and controlled. The concept came to the fore with the Cadbury Report in England in 1992 and has since been the topic of much academic discussion. The recent collapse of companies like Enron and WorldCom raised serious questions about international corporate governance practices. This has resulted in widespread reform. In the United States large-scale prescriptive measures were implemented through the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The United Kingdom persisted with their principle-based approach of comply or explain, although some amendments were made to the Combined Code through a joint effort by the Co-ordinating Group on Audit and Accounting Issues, the Smith Report and the Higgs Report. In Australia change took the form of the ASX Corporate Governance Principles and CLERP 9. South Africa, influenced by its common law background, followed a similar approach to that of the United Kingdom but has recently adopted a more prescriptive approach similar to that of the US. The King Committee was set up to review corporate governance in South Africa and two reports report were published – one in 1994 and another in 2002. Amendments to the JSE Listings Requirements followed. The Konar Report made recommendations on the reform of the accounting and auditing profession. The Department of Trade and Industry has recently launched a review of South African company law in conjunction with a review of the audit and accounting professions. These recent developments in company law will however not be discussed in depth as it is at a very early stage and is still subject to change. The aim of this study is to evaluate and determine whether or not the reform in South Africa is adequate to address the questions raised by recent corporate scandals in South Africa. The question also has to be asked whether South Africa should follow international trends in reform just for the sake of reforming. This requires an understanding of the principles underlying corporate governance and the reasons for the existence of corporate governance rules. With the increasing separation between ownership and control the accountability of directors has waned considerably. When addressing corporate governance issues, this must be kept in mind constantly. While the focus of recent reform has been on the company, its directors and auditors, the role of shareholders should not be ignored. What is needed to prevent directors and managers from abusing their positions of power are more informed and involved shareholders. The different role players must also cooperate in developing a culture of ethical behaviour and an environment of openness and accountability.

Trade marks are among the most valuable commodities of the modern business world. Adequate protection for trade marks to prevent the misappropriation of their incredible marketing power is therefore important. The aim of this dissertation is to make recommendations regarding the further development of existing South African law regarding the protection of registered trade marks against dilution, particularly by the courts. Current statutory protection is examined and compared with trade-mark law in the United States and the European Union. Although the concept of dilution originated in Germany, most of its development took place in the United States, starting in 1927 with an article by Frank Schechter. Dilution occurs when the awareness that a specific mark signifies a single product from a single source changes to an unmistakable awareness that the same mark signifies various things from various sources. The primary theories as to how dilution occurs are blurring and tarnishment. Although the dilution concept is widely recognised, there is still a debate amongst legal scholars on whether trade marks deserve protection against dilution. The extent of protection that the law gives to trade marks largely depends on the socioeconomic functions that a trade mark is perceived to fulfil. The original source or origin function is protected by the traditional infringement provisions. The identification or distinguishing function, quality function and advertising function subsequently gained recognition. The advertising function is statutorily recognised in various jurisdictions, which prevents trade-mark dilution. Statutory recognition of dilution in the United States first occurred in State law from 1947 onwards. Protection is generally given to distinctive or strong trade marks where a similar mark is used on dissimilar goods in the absence of confusion in such a way that there is a likelihood that the reputation of the senior mark will be injured. The parameters of the concept were developed and refined mainly through case law. Federal protection against dilution was only introduced in 1995. The new Act, although widely welcomed, also brought some unpredictability and interpretation problems. The first statutory dilution protection for trade marks in Europe is found in the Uniform Benelux Trade Marks Act. In 1989 the European Union adopted the Trademark Directive, with the aim of harmonising the legal protection afforded to trade marks. Its "dilution" provisions were incorporated into the United Kingdom's Trade Marks Act of 1994. The sometimes conflicting interpretations of these provisions by the English courts and the Court of Justice of the European Communities are discussed. The South African Act shows a substantial degree of harmony with legislation in the United Kingdom and other European countries. Aspects of the wording of the dilution provisions are however open to interpretation by the courts. Until the end of 2003 there was only one major trade-mark dilution case decided by a South African court, namely SAR v Laugh It OjJPromotions, which is discussed in detail. The dissertation concludes with recommendations to aid South African courts in the future interpretation and application of the dilution provisions. Amendments to the legislation are also proposed to promote greater clarity.

OHADA (in English, Organization for Harmonization in Africa of Business Laws) is a system of business laws and implementing institutions. Sixteen West African nations adopted this regime in order to increase their attractiveness to foreign investment. Because most of the member states are former French colonies, the OHADA laws are based on the French legal system. Despite certain economists’ recent, well-publicized assertions that any French-based legal system is incompatible with development, other studies challenge those claims and in doing so outline characteristics that a pro-development system of business laws should possess. This Article reviews selected provisions from OHADA’s corporate law and of OHADA’s institutions, revealing that they correspond to those pro-development characteristics. Interviews conducted with legal professionals in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon highlight the local perception that the OHADA regime, while still

In the universal history of mankind, the concepts “culture” and “trade” have long denominated two important trains of human aspirations and activities. Notwithstanding their great significance for human life in its entirety, they have been widely regarded as belonging to distinct spheres, which were deemed to be difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile. This perception was also widely reflected in the sphere of law, where their respective fields have been subject to separate regimes based on the logic of their mutual exclusivity and expressed in the concept of res extra commercium. By contrast, the concept of “cultural industries”, which was originally derived from the term Kulturindustrie coined by protagonists of the Frankfurt School introduced a new category of cultural goods and services, which began to strongly challenge the traditional legal separation of cultural from economic considerations. Their novelty as well as their more subtle conceptual implications led to the controversy over the treatment of the dual, i.e. both cultural and economic, nature of such goods and services, which surfaced first during the bilateral trade negotiations between Canada and the United States and soon afterwards during the multilateral Uruguay Round negotiations. In the latter, it was the controversy over the exception culturelle that almost derailed the successful establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Since then the problem remains unsolved, and reinforced by the decision of the WTO Panel in the Canada Periodicals Case, the quest for an appropriate conceptual approach allowing for the correct legal answer to the conundrum of culture and trade continues up to this day. In this quest, the present thesis forms an attempt to cast some light on the culture and trade conundrum with a view to isolating options for an appropriate legal response of the multilateral trading system under the WTO. It follows the evolution of the concept of cultural industries, from its birth in the context of critical social theory across the field of political economy to its first appearance in the legal context with the 1988 Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement. After a short analysis of the cultural industries exemption in the North American context, its focus shifts to the GATT/WTO system of which the basic provisions are discussed in connection with the category of cultural goods and services known as the cultural industries. Their critical analysis yields the present imperfections inherent in the WTO system as a corollary of the fragmentation of the international legal order. Before some final conclusions are drawn, these imperfections are contrasted with the relevant experiences within the context of the process of European integration from the European Economic Community to the European Union.