Bibliographie sélective OHADA

The concepts public policy and public interest often obtain an imprecise content as a criterion for contractual justice in South African law. The consequence of this is some degree of legal uncertainty. This is the problem raised in the present dissertation. From the cases and literature the causes of the problem became clearer and it became evident that the correct basis to deal with this problem is the systematisation of this sphere of the law of contract, which also implies the circumspect dealing with concepts. This was confirmed by the examination of a number of foreign legal systems. It appeared moreover that in these systems too, general criteria are used to evaluate contractual justice, namely: in German law the concepts gute Sitten and Treu und Glauben, in Dutch law the concepts goede zeden, openbare orde, as well as redelijkheid en billijkheid (goede trouw) and in English law the concept public policy and possibly in future also the concept good faith. The foreign systems furthermore provided some solutions regarding the practical implementation of the systematisation. The proposed systematisation firstly implies that public policy and public interest should be understood correctly as a general criterion in this sphere, which means that it has a normative character as well as a flexible nature, which necessarily causes some degree of legal uncertainty. It also implies that public policy and public interest - correctly orientated - should be seen as pivotal to one of the requirements for a valid contract, which is traditionally known as the requirement of legality, but which probably should rather be known as the requirement of lawfulness. This requirement should in addition be understood in a broad sense as also relating to the effect of contracts, and consequently to contractual justice, seen as the relative balance between the interests of the parties. The systematisation furthermore includes the understanding that in this sphere a judge has a limited discretion in exercising a law-creating power. The discretion is limited, especially to prevent a judge from reaching a decision on account of a purely subjective opinion. Regarding this limited discretion an established system of guidelines currently does not exist in South African law, but in the present dissertation a step in this direction was made. The gist of these guidelines is that the nature and the context of the relevant contract or contract term should be observed. The individual case should, however, not be over-emphasised, since that may lead to a superabundance of legal uncertainty and to the misuse of public policy and public interest as a defence. Regarding practical application the systematisation includes in short that various facets of public policy and public interest are distinguished, namely legislation and common law, established views and customs (boni mores), and thirdly public policy and public interest as such, concretised by the concept good faith as the underlying principle. It is submitted that the proposed systematisation could contribute to decreasing the imprecise use of the concepts public policy and public interest and concomitant legal uncertainty.

Face à la mondialisation qui permet l'universalisation du marché et est favorable à la libéralisation des échanges quinze États d'Afrique francophone, ayant une tradition juridique commune, ont, pour instaurer un environnement juridique et judiciaire propice à leurs activités économiques, créé le 17 octobre 1993, à l'île Maurice un Traité portant Organisation pour l'Harmonisation en Afrique du Droit des Affaires (OHADA). Ce Traité tire son originalité de la spécificité de son objectif fondamental, de l'ampleur de l'intégration communautaire qu'il propose et de la particularité des méthodes et moyens retenus. Au plan juridique, le Traité dispose que les actes pris pour l'adoption de règles communes sont qualifiés d'actes uniformes : cinq matières du domaine du droit des affaires ont déjà fait l'objet d'actes uniformes. Ces actes ont introduit de nombreuses innovations au droit des affaires. Au plan judiciaire la Cour commune de justice et d'arbitrage est consultée pour l'interprétation et l'application de tous les textes du droit harmonisé.

ENGLISH SUMMARY: 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.

Ce travail traite du pluralisme juridique en matière de successions foncieres et des conflits de lois et de juridictions qu'il engendre au plan interne en Afrique noire, notamment au Bénin. Cette question, qui, dans un pays de droit officiellement uniformise, serait sans grand interet, devient particulierement interessante dans un contexte de dualite des statuts civils et reels. En effet tous les individus ne sont pas soumis au meme statut personnel : certains sont soumis au statut moderne, d'autres au statut traditionnel. Le droit des successions est regi par deux systemes successoraux avec des concepts et des regles parfois opposes. De meme, le systeme foncier est dualiste : au systeme foncier traditionnel domine par la propriete collective lignagere s'oppose le systeme moderne fonde sur l'appropriation (au sens du code civil) individuelle. En effet, comme au plan iternational, l'existence de plusieurs ordres juridiques d'application simultanee engendre egalement au plan interne des conflits de lois interpersonnels. C'est cette situation complexe qui fait des successions foncieres un sujet particulierement interessant. La question se pose de savoir si, dans l'ordre juridique traditionnel, la terre peut etre transmise par succession. Puis, quelle est la loi applicable a la succession, notamment en cas de successions mixtes ? L'absence de regles de solutions claires et precises chez le legislateur, les meandres de la jurisprudence et les controverses doctrinales rendent toute reponse precise peu aisee. C'est a ce probleme que le present travail, a l'analyse de la legislation, de la jurisprudence et de la doctrine ainsi qu'au vu des resultats de recherches sur le terrain, tente de degager certaines solutions pouvant servir de base a une reforme necessaire.

La jurisprudence française permettant la reconnaissance et l’exécution des sentences annulées dans leur Etat d’origine - illustrée par les affaires Norsolor, Hilmarton et Chromalloy - repose sur l’idée que la loi du siège de l’arbitrage n’est pas la seule source de la validité de la sentence, la loi du lieu d’exécution ayant un titre plus fort encore à déterminer si la sentence doit être reconnue et exécutée. C’est donc au droit français qu’il appartient de déterminer si et à quelles conditions une sentence doit être reconnue en France, quel que soit le sort qui lui a été réservé dans 1’Etat d’origine. Cette conception a donné lieu à une controverse internationale mais les arguments qui lui ont été opposés ne convainquent pas. En fait, les principales conventions internationales’ l’examen des arguments de politique juridique et des arguments fondés sur la légitimité du contrôle au lieu du siège et au lieu d’exécution de la sentence, conduisent à la conclusion que cette jurisprudence est parfaitement fondée. Il serait inexact de voir dans cette jurisprudence une conséquence du détachement de la sentence des ordres juridiques étatiques. Bien qu’elle récuse l’idée que le siège soit le seul point d’ancrage de la sentence dans les ordres juridiques étatiques, cette conception reconnaît au contraire que le caractère contraignant de la sentence repose sur la volonté de l’ensemble des Etats qui se déclarent prêts à reconnaître, à certaines conditions, sa force obligatoire.

Defence date: 26 October 1998