Bibliographie sélective OHADA

Insurance fraud is a major issue in the insurance industry. Insurance companies around the world are all facing significant losses due to the prevalence of fraudulent claims. These fraudulent claims and subsequent losses suffered by insurers inevitably lead to a dilution of the insurance pool and result in other policyholders bearing the brunt of these losses. The inevitable solution for insurers is to hike the premiums for all other policyholders in order to compensate for their losses caused by fraudulent claims. Insurance fraud is an international problem and it is common for insurers in most jurisdictions to use forfeiture clauses. These clauses aim to protect the insurer by stating that if the policyholder should submit any type pf fraudulent claim, the policyholder will forfeit the entire claim. There has been much controversy around the validity and fairness of these clauses. This thesis seeks to provide an overview of the prevalence of fraudulent insurance claims in South Africa, England, Australia and New Zealand. Moreover, it will consider the fairness of forfeiture clauses in light of the fundamental movement towards policyholder protection in recent years both in South Africa and in those jurisdictions that form part of the comparative study. The thesis concludes that forfeiture clauses form an indispensable part of short-term insurance contracts and are justifiable and therefore lawful. It is, however, submitted that insurance companies have a duty to disclose the nature and extent of forfeiture clauses at the inception of the policy and again at claim stage. By using so-called staggered disclosure, insurers provide policyholders with the opportunity to consider their claim and the means with which to prove it in order to avoid instituting a fraudulent claim. The thesis recommends that these rules pertaining to staggered disclosure should form part of the 2018 Policyholder Protection Rules, together with a statutory definition of insurance fraud.

The use of conduit company treaty shopping structures is often regarded as an impermissible erosion of a country’s tax base. For a developing country, such as South Africa, the protection of its tax base is an important policy consideration. Arguably, one way of combatting conduit company treaty shopping structures is by including in a country’s double taxation agreements the beneficial ownership requirement set out in Article 10(2) of the OECD MTC. The study examines how a South African court would interpret this requirement in provisions in South African double taxation agreements in the context of conduit company treaty shopping involving conduit companies receiving dividends. The study firstly considers whether the beneficial ownership requirement can be regarded as an anti-avoidance rule aimed at combatting conduit company treaty shopping falling outside agents and nominee scenarios. It further considers whether the term “beneficial owner” should have a legal or economic meaning. It explores the meanings given to this term by scholars and foreign courts and the OECD in its Commentaries to the OECD MTC. The study also considers the application of the rules of interpretation contained in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties when giving meaning to this term. Lastly, the study considers whether the term should have the meaning assigned to it under the domestic law of a treaty country, or under international tax law. As part of this enquiry, the meanings of the expression “beneficial owner” in South African case law and legislation are explored.

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L'anarchie autrefis observée dans le secteur de la microfinance en zone CEMAC s'est longtemps justifiée par l'absence d'une règlementation spécifique à cette activité. Le regime juridique applicable aux établissements de microfinance dans la plupart des pays de la CEMAC avant le 13 avril 2002 est resté inadapté. Dans le souci d'harmoniser la règlementation et de renforcer l'intégration, le législateur de la CEMAC va adopter le 13 avril 2002 le règlement n°01/02/CEMAC/UMAC/COBAC relatif aux conditions d'exercice et de contrôle de l'activité de microfinance dans la CEMAC. Quinze ans après l'entrée en vigueur de ce texte, le paysage de l'activité de microfinance a connu une certaine amélioration. Néanmoins, des réformes restent attendues en ce qui concerne le contrôle externe de ces établissements.

En considération de ce que la médiation commerciale entendue comme un processus par lequel des personnes physiques ou morales, demandent à un tiers de les aider à parvenir à un règlement amiable d’un différend découlant d’un rapport juridique, contractuel ou autre ou lié à un tel rapport, il est aisé de percevoir qu’il s’agit d’un mode de résolution non judiciaire de litige. A la différence du règlement judiciaire des conflits, la médiation commerciale tend à solutionner les points d’oppositions entre les parties, et à maintenir et soigner leurs relations d’affaires. Elle s’oppose à l’arbitrage qui tranche le litige par une sentence, qui s’impose aux parties, qu’elles la veuillent ou non. Elle ne génère donc pas de perdant, mais les deux parties doivent avoir fait des concessions, et gagner en temps. De ce fait, l’on est tenté d’affirmer que la médiation commerciale pourrait se passer de l’exploitation des moyens de preuve. D’ailleurs, l’Acte uniforme de l’OHADA relatif à la médiation ne fait aucune mention du principe de preuve dans la conduite de la médiation commerciale pas plus que l’ensemble des textes qui organisent la matière. L’on se pose même a question de l’opportunité d’avoir à prouver les faits dans une telle discipline si tant est que toutes les parties en sortent gagnantes. Mais à y voir de près, la médiation commerciale ne semble pas totalement exclure le système de la preuve tel que pratiqué dans la procédure judiciaire de résolution des conflits. Au contraire, elle en a fortement besoin pour à la fois justifier le fondement des prétentions des parties ainsi que la solution au litige. Précisément, la preuve dans la médiation commerciale participe à la détermination des points à discuter et à la justification tant des propositions formulées par le médiateur que des concessions à faire par les parties.

India's economic progress and relations with other developing regions have received much attention, particularly the way in which Indo-African relations have evolved since 2000. This paper aims to put Indian FDI in Africa into perspective and provide some answers on the nature and possible impact of these flows to the continent. The study utilized the International typology offered by Dunning OLI paradigm to identify the important of Location Specific Advantages and how these advantages leads to selection of location for investment purposes by investors The study findings demonstrated that potential market growth, market opportunities and consumer base are the important indicated Indian firms targets Africa to seek new and unexplored markets of Africa. Competitiveness climate is important determinant along with economies of scale, investment incentives and availability of natural resources.