Bibliographie sélective OHADA

Development is understood to be an economic process that aims at a constant improvement of the well-being of all individuals who have the right to participate and benefits from the fruits of development. Development is also a right that requires a progressive realisation by governments, international communities and private sectors to the satisfaction of all individuals. A progressive realisation of this right requires a vibrant economy, which can be acquired through International trade and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). It is in this context that this thesis has attempted to discuss the influence of FDI and International trade on development. The discussion was initiated by focusing on the history of the multilateral trade system (MTS) by looking at various Ministerial rounds of both the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In this discussion the thesis found that, whilst there are various multilateral political frameworks regulating trade, FDI is subject to regional and domestic political frameworks. The thesis also discussed development in relation to the millennium development goals (MGDs). It was established the goal eight of the MDGs requires the integration of poor countries into the MTS so that they can be able to exploit their comparative advantage. This goal influenced the launching of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) at the Doha round in 2001. However, the thesis also established that conclusion of the DDA has been progressing at a slow pace. Therefore it has not yielded substantial results for poor countries. The failure to conclude the DDA has led to an increase of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs), which some scholars view as a supplement of multilateral trade integration. However, the SADC region has not been able to conclude their integration objectives due to the fact that many member states belong to other RTAs. In the case of FDI the thesis established that FDI is accompanied by a wide range of resources for host countries, which can be utilised for enhancing development. However, it was also established that the SADC has not been able to attract lucrative FDI due to a wide range of factors that impede FDI. On this finding, a case study was employed on four countries in the region, namely Angola, Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University LondonThis study is an attempt at determining the normative legitimacy of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). At its core, it scrutinizes the current mandate of the organization following the layering of economic integration objectives with human rights protection, sustenance of democracy, and the rule of law. The study discusses the elements of legitimacy across disciplines mainly, international law, international relations and political science. Legitimacy is eventually split along two divides, the normative and descriptive/sociological aspects. The study traces the normative content (shared/common values) underlying integration in Africa, concluding that integration has been born on new ideals such as human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Expectedly, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) as building blocks of the prospective African Economic Community (AEC) under the African Union (AU) regime are mandated to play a vital role in moving the continent forward upon these values. The inquiry is extended to the institutions of ECOWAS to determine their capacity to effectively implement the new mandate of the organization and operate supranationally. In the process, key legal and institutional shortcomings are discussed, particularly in relation to national institutions. It is argued that while human rights protection enhances the normative legitimacy of ECOWAS, it must not be pursued in isolation. Economic integration and protection of citizens’ rights are co-terminus and mutually reinforcing. Hence, community institutions must reflect this link if they are to be effective. The study concludes on the note that, while ECOWAS possesses layers of legitimacy, and have carried out legitimation steps, it cannot be considered a legitimate organization if Member States continue to be non-compliant with community objectives and if key legal questions remain unaddressed. It is submitted that ECOWAS is merely undergoing legitimation, whether it can eventually be considered a legitimate organization is dependent on addressing the identified challenges

In 1998 the European Union adopted a new self-standing instrument of collective enforcement - the Action for Injunction. Until then, the main focus was on the improvement of the position of the individual consumer through the adoption of substantive consumer law directives. The Injunction Directive provides for a general framework on consumer law enforcement in national and cross-border litigation. Qualified entities, public agencies and/or consumer organisations, are granted legal standing. National courts are bound to mutually respect the standing of EU wide registered qualified entities. Outside these clear-cut rules on the mutual recognition of standing, the Injunction Directive remains largely silent. The implementation into 28 Member States swiftly revealed the rather limited harmonising effect. The thesis investigates and explains how despite the legally approved diversity, the Injunction Directive contains the potential to turn diversity into convergence. The key to understanding the potential is the thesis of dualism of enforcement measures. Read together with the Annex the Injunction Directive establishes the deep interconnection between collective and individual enforcement, of substantive and procedural enforcement, of judicial and administrative enforcement. The different levels and means of enforcement should not be regarded separately but should always be looked at in their interplay, in their mutual institutional design and their mutual impact. Evidence for convergence can be found in the Invitel judgment of the ECJ and in the practice of consumer organisations via co-ordination actions across borders by which they overcome the boundaries of collective vs. individual or judicial vs. administrative enforcement. Regulation 2006/2004 re-adjusts the dualistic structure of enforcement in favour of public bodies and promotes convergence through para-legal means, through new modes of enforcement, through co-operation and co-ordination outside courts and in open interaction between administrative bodies, to which consumer organisations are admitted on approval only.

State aid law is made up of rules and procedures whose main characters are the Member States – as the addressees of the norms – and the Commission – as their enforcer. The prominent position of these two actors often overshadows the impact that the administration of the rules on State aid has on private undertakings, be it the beneficiaries of State aids or their competitors. This thesis is concerned with the latter. The aim of the thesis is to assess the extent to which competitors may rely on the rules on State aid to protect themselves against the potentially harmful effects of subsidies and other forms of state, financial assistance to firms. This endeavour raises two challenges. The first challenge is to identify the channels through which competitors may voice their interest in the context of a system of governance to which they are in principle alien. This is the issue of access. The second challenge is assess the likelihood that the Commission shall heed to the concerns voiced by competitors. In other words, the challenge is to gauge the power of influence that competitors may exert through each of these channels. This is the issue of leverage. In order to carry out this inquiry, the thesis scrutinizes the means of redress available to competitors before national courts (“private enforcement”), as well as the opportunities that they have to make their voice heard in the course of the Commission’s procedures (“public enforcement”) – namely, the possibility to lodge complaints, the possibility to participate in the consultation phase of Article 108(2) TFEU and the possibility to seek the judicial review of State aid decisions.

Pretende–se com esta tese intítulada “ Direito Comunitário material e Integração Sub–Regional: Contributo para o Estudo das Mutações no Processo da Integração Económica e Monetária da África Ocidental” pôr em evidência as mutações ocorridas na actual zona franco, no período colonial e pós colonial dos países africanos e as reformas das principais instituições comunitárias nela verificadas.Impõe–se uma nova abordagem da realidade contemporânea, no quadro das profundas mudanças ocorridas, a reclamar novos instrumentos de análise e de integração regional.Neste sentido, o Tratado da União Monetária Oeste Africana (UMOA) proclamou expressamente a vontade que animava os Estados–membros de prosseguirem na via da integração regional e de transformarem o conjunto das relações entre os si numa União Económica e Monetária.Com o propósito de somar à moeda única a harmonização legislativa, a abertura e a unificação dos mercados, a adopção de politicas económicas convergentes, propõe–se a União Económica e Monetária da África Ocidental (UEMOA) levar a cabo a habitual sequência da integração regional.Analisamos profundamente as políticas comunitárias, distinguindo primeiro políticas visando mais directamente a livre circulação das mercadorias, das pessoas, dos serviços e dos capitais no âmbito da UEMOA e da CEDEAO.A presente tese de doutoramento visa retratar o regime monetário regional que historicamente está ligado ao espaço colonial francês e depois se integrou progressivamente no sistema monetário internacional.Enfatizamos os principais instrumentos de política monetária regional, bem como o quadro institucional da União.Traçamos as premissas para uma teoria geral da integração dos Estados–membros da zona franco no contexto duma integração monetária e do novo multilateralismo comercial.Num ambiente cada vez mais concorrencial e difícil tornam-se prementes uma firme e necessária cooperação e integração regionais.No contexto da União Africana e da Nova Parceira para o Desenvolvimento do Continente Africano (NEPAD), evocamos as condições prévias do desenvolvimento com relação ao combate à pobreza. A nova Parceria Económica entre os países africanos e a União Europeia, consubstanciada no reforço do comércio internacional, permitindo robustecer as económicas africanas frágeis, que evidenciam falta de competitividade e de complementaridade, e uma um melhor inserção na económia regional e mundial.Nesta ordem de ideias, debruçamo-nos sobre as vantagens comparativas dos países da zona franco face às regras da Organização Mundial do Comércio (OMC).Partindo do entendimento de que o comércio internacional é necessário e que as trocas comerciais venham mesmo a ser inevitáveis, o que se propõe é uma nova discussão, inquirindo–se se o sistema multilateral de comércio pode fomentar e englobar um projecto de desenvolvimento.

This thesis explores the way in which EU and U.S. antitrust rules address opportunistic conducts that emerge in the context of standard essential patents (SEPs). The analysis finds that the two systems have very different scopes in addressing those practices: conduct lawful under U.S. antitrust law is condemned by the EU competition law and vice versa. In contrast to other fields of antitrust, the differences between the EU and U.S. approach do not arise from the application of different legal standards, but rather reflect the core divergences in the statutory texts that address unilateral practices. The analysis also shows that both in the European Union and in the United States, competition authorities have tried to increase the scope of competition law—first, by stretching the antitrust doctrines outside established borders, and second, by advocacy measures designed to avoid opportunism related to SEPs. The thesis shows, nonetheless, that both approaches are problematic and a more cautious strategy is needed to avoid the risk of injecting imbalance in the standardization context.

Trabajo de Curso de Experto Universitario en Mediación Civil, Familiar, Mercantil y Organizaciones Complejas (2013). Tutora: María Sonia González Ortega. El objetivo del presente trabajo es abordar la Mediación en el seno de las organizaciones, teniendo en cuenta que estas constituyen sistemas de interrelación entre personas, donde confluyen numerosos intereses. Se trata por tanto, de abordar la resolución de los problemas no solo existentes sino de los emergentes, aportando herramientas eficaces en el desarrollo de la actividad empresarial, que permitan gestionar y modular los conflictos, de forma que los mismos, se transformen en oportunidades de mejora y de crecimiento empresarial.

Le droit communautaire est un droit en évolution intensive. Les règles de compétence, d’exécution et de reconnaissance en sont une parfaite illustration dans le cadre du Règlement Bruxelles I qui est refondu dans un nouveau Règlement. Cette recherche dispose d’une importance quant à l’analyse des questions procédurales soulevées dans le domaine du transport maritime. En effet, les règles de compétence énoncées par lesdits textes, au cas où ils sont applicables, touchent des spécificités propres au transport maritime à savoir la fréquence des clauses attributives figurant dans les connaissements et le caractère tripartite du contrat de transport maritime. De plus, les règles au service de la coopération judiciaire, telles que la litispendance et la connexité, sont utiles pour pallier, dans une certaine mesure, des controverses pouvant découler de ces mêmes règles communautaires. En tout état de cause, le transport maritime marque sa spécificité quant à l’opposabilité de ces clauses envers les différents acteurs de l’opération de transport.