Bibliographie sélective OHADA

South Africa is currently undergoing harsh economic times, and as such, many companies are feeling the brunt of the situation. As a result, these companies begin to trade at a loss and are left without any other option but to liquidate their affairs in order to pay off creditors. However, with the development brought by the Companies Act 71 of 2008 (“the Act”), business rescue was introduced. Business rescue is an alternative to liquidation and it allows the company to undergo rehabilitation and continue trading if certain requirements are met. Chapter 6 of the Act aims to assist businesses in providing some sort of relief in the form of business rescue to provide them with the breathing space that they require to try and become a viable business again. Just like any new formulated concept, it is susceptible to abuse. Many companies that are already under liquidation are suspending their liquidation in favour of business rescue, despite, in some instances, the liquidation order having already been granted against the company. The Covid-19 pandemic has made the question of whether a business can suspend liquidation proceedings in favour of business rescue more prevalent as the pandemic has caused a detrimental financial impact on a number of businesses. Now more than ever businesses find themselves struggling to keep afloat, and as a result many of them have to consider the avenues of liquidation or business rescue. This dissertation aims to look at both liquidation and business rescue proceedings and decipher whether the courts were correct in their decision regarding when business rescue proceedings can be instituted during liquidation proceedings. The importance of taking into account the above is due to the fact that many companies in present day are experiencing financial difficulties, and liquidation or business rescue proceedings are the options that they are left with. However, one has to carefully consider both options, taking into account the company’s financial circumstances. This is of importance, as one needs to establish if there is a reasonable prospect of rescuing the company or not. If there were, then business rescue would indeed be the route to be taken, but if not, then liquidation proceedings would be. However, many companies that have no prospect of being rescued, and that have already opted for liquidation may want to institute business rescue proceedings to delay the inevitable and frustrate creditors, thus leading to the abuse of the newly formulated concept, which has to be curbed.

This research deals with the legal responsibility of states to provide climate finance to developing countries in order to facilitate climate mitigation and adaptation. The research demonstrates that the area of climate finance has not escaped globalization, where global actors operating at a level beyond the state (the UNFCCC and several Climate Funds) have increasingly taken over some of the climate finance functions previously performed by states. Against this backdrop, the thesis also examines the role of international bodies in providing climate finance, assesses to what extent these bodies are accountable to affected local stakeholders, and puts forward recommendations to foster increased accountability. The research project employs Global Administrative Law (GAL) as a normative framework for assessing and fostering accountability. This thesis is relevant, first and foremost, as an examination of the extent to which global climate finance is adequate for addressing climate change impacts in developing countries. To this end, it engages in a detailed analysis of the international legal framework for climate change and of the relevant financial instruments. It also engages in a normative evaluation of these instruments using the standards proposed by GAL. In keeping with this, the research gives substance and a better definition to these standards. As such, the thesis has the potential to contribute not only to the literature on climate finance, but also to the literature on GAL. It also sheds light on the relationship between climate finance and GAL, a topic that has been largely neglected in the academic literature so far.

The purpose of this study is to provide a legal analysis of the impact of targeted financial sanctions on letters of credit and demand guarantees. The letter of credit is an important method of payment used in international trade. The demand guarantee plays a significant role as an instrument of security in commercial transactions. In their simplest form both instruments constitute an undertaking by a bank to pay a beneficiary against delivery of certain stipulated documents. Letters of credit and demand guarantees are known to be reliable and provide a considerable measure of certainty and predictability to the underlying transaction. Consequently, they have been described as the “lifeblood of international commerce”. Targeted financial sanctions entail assets freezing and prohibitions to prevent funds or other assets from being made available, directly or indirectly, for the benefit of designated individuals and entities. Endorsed by the United Nations and implemented by the vast majority of jurisdictions around the world, targeted financial sanctions are increasingly being used to combat financial crime, including money laundering, terrorism financing and weapon proliferation financing. Banks play a critical role in financial crime prevention and detection. Hence they have been identified as institutions that must comply with targeted financial sanctions. The relationship between targeted financial sanctions and letters of credit and demand guarantees has generally not been well documented. It is hoped, therefore, that this study will make a meaningful contribution to the jurisprudence on letters of credit and demand guarantees. In investigating the impact of targeted financial sanctions, the study can be categorised into three parts. Part one investigates a bank’s compliance with domestic targeted financial sanctions. The chief findings of the study in this regard are that banks are under a legal obligation to comply with sanctions and, as a result, a bank that refuses to perform its contractual obligations under a letter of credit or demand guarantee may have a defence in law. In South African law the bank can raise the so-called defence of legal impossibility of performance to resist a claim for, or potential litigation in respect of, payment. Part two investigates a bank’s compliance with foreign targeted financial sanctions. Because compliance in this regard has no (legal) basis, the bank may conceivably be sued by the beneficiary for payment on the basis of breach of contract. Part three investigates problematic documentary practices that banks have adopted or conceivably may adopt to manage their sanctions risk exposure. In this regard, attention is given to so-called sanctions clauses and other non-documentary conditions. The issue of unjustified amendments by the beneficiary for the purposes of sanctions evasion is also considered in part three. The general conclusion arrived at is that by interfering with payment, targeted financial sanctions render letters of credit and demand guarantees unreliable, thereby having the effect of reducing their value to international trade and commerce. The author proposes certain recommendations and initiatives aimed at mitigating the impact of targeted financial sanctions on credits and guarantees. Key terms: letters of credit; demand guarantees; financial crime; sanctions evasion; targeted financial sanctions; compliance; banks; due diligence; payment; reimbursement; credits; guarantees.

No abstract provided.

L’analyse de la sécurité juridique dans l’insertion du droit d’origine externe dans les constitutions des États de la CEMAC permet de démontrer l’affirmation de la garantie relative de la sécurité juridique dans les mécanismes d’insertion. Cette garantie est tantôt affirmée, tantôt atténuée. Cela est affirmée à travers la variété d’insertion octroyant des droits aux sujets du droit d’origine externe et quant à la place déterminante du parlement et du juge dans le processus d’insertion. Mais cela demeure atténuée car la non-accessibilité des citoyens au droit d’origine externe ainsi que l’incohérence des exigences d’application du droit d’origine externe constituent une source d’insécurité juridique. En tant que procédure permettant aux normes d’origine externe d’intégrer l’ordonnancement juridique interne tout en leur octroyant une validité, l’insertion du droit d’origine externe constitue une exigence favorable à la sécurité juridique.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the constitutional provisions relating to the relationship between international law and domestic law of the States of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa reveals an ambivalent conception of the system relationships. This is all the more true since the choice of monism with primacy of international law is affirmed both formally and materially. Even if this variant of monism seems to be tempered by certain constitutional provisions, the treaties have considerable effects in the domestic legal order. Once integrated into the legal order through the modalities of insertion, treaties have a supra-legislative and infra-constitutional rank. However, some constitutions of the States of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, such as Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, have not enshrined constitutional provisions on the place of treaties in the legal order. The concern to safeguard the supremacy of the constitution and consequently of national sovereignty may justify such a constitutional practice.

En conférant le caractère d’ordre public à des normes juridiques contenues dans les actes uniformes de l’Organisation pour l’harmonisation en Afrique du droit des affaires (OHADA), le législateur OHADA semble s’être éloigné de l’objectif recherché par le Traité OHADA signé le 17 octobre 1993 à Port-Louis (Ile Maurice). Selon ce dernier, les normes communes doivent être simples, modernes et adaptées aux économies dans les États parties. Cependant, au regard de l’impérativité ou de la rigidité qui caractérise l’ordre public, on pourrait se rendre compte que les dispositions d’ordre public sont incompatibles avec l’approche juridique souple préconisée pour un acte uniforme donné. Il y a donc lieu de trouver les mécanismes de rapprochement des dispositions d’ordre public avec les actes uniformes. Ce changement passerait par un aménagement du cadre d’expression des dispositions d’ordre public dans les actes uniformes, tout d’abord en procédant à la déréglementation desdites dispositions d’ordre public et, par la suite, en optant pour une nouvelle approche juridique nommée « régulation ».

This thesis explores the regulation of airport charges, which is an important but marginalised topic. It particularly examines how private law instruments can play a role in the regulatory process. Airports used to be subject to traditional regulation, which operates in a command-and-control mode. As the airport industry becomes increasingly complicated, traditional regulation seems problematic. First, the method that is associated with traditional regulation to draw a line between regulated and unregulated airports has downsides. Second, the international regulatory framework on airport charges lacks binding rules. This suggests that traditional regulation is not the best niche for airport charges regulation. Third, good regulation needs independent regulatory bodies, which are hard to achieve in practice.In this context, this thesis argues that a private law approach can serve as a more flexible and effective way to regulate airport charges. There are two instruments under this overarching approach. First, contracts can be adopted to incorporate airport charges regulations. Second, robust corporate governance generates the effect of good regulation. This is an interdisciplinary work that has engaged air law, contract law, corporate law, competition law, and aviation business and management. It also employs the method of case studies. Chapter 4 examines the regulation of airport charges in the UK, Canada, and India. The three case studies demonstrate that private law instruments have been implicitly implemented to different degrees in these countries. These demonstrate the feasibility of applying private ordering in the regulatory process. I also look into the regulation of countries and regions including Australia, Ireland, the EU, and Germany throughout this thesis. This study also examines a specific sector of airport charges, namely, charges for ground-handling services. This sector possesses a unique feature in that it is between aeronautical and non-aeronautical services. A private law approach can also be adopted in the regulation of charges relating to ground-handling services. Additionally, ICAO as an important international organisation governing international air transport can also contribute to a private law approach of airport charges through its soft-law making function. This thesis aims to shed light on a private law approach, as an innovative regulatory mechanism, to airport charges. That said, regulation by this approach and traditional regulation are not contradictory but can cooperate to an extent, depending on how much power one wants to give to private ordering

Avec la résurgence des problèmes environnementaux, le droit international des investissements se retrouve aujourd'hui face à l'urgence de sa propre réadaptation. Et, comme réponse unique à un impératif catégorique, l'équilibre des intérêts émerge en tant qu'un principe général de droit (PGD), de nature souple et autonome, à qui ses diverses fonctions (logique, axiologique, unificatrice et correctrice) confèrent une utilité opérationnelle au sein de l'ordre juridique international, et dont la mise en œuvre en droit international des investissements est l'expression de la dimension évolutive. En tant que principe référentiel, il est consubstantiel au droit international des investissements et vise à faire prévaloir un idéal normatif (le droit de l'équilibre) sur un autre (le droit de la protection). Toutefois, l'aporie de l'équilibre des intérêts est d'être, à la fois, une affirmation du principe de la souveraineté réglementaire et une limitation de celui-ci. Dans un premier temps, sa mise en œuvre se traduit par la prise en compte de l'intérêt général dans le balancier état-investisseur et, dans un second temps, cette exigence ne se concrétise qu'au bout d'un double test de la proportionnalité et du raisonnable. Alors que sa source de régénération par rapport au reste du système est la protection internationale des valeurs fondamentales et socio-environnementales, sa structure de base demeure le couple droit-obligation et s'apparente à une transversalité normative qui combine à la fois la lex lata et la lex ferenda d'une part, la soft law et la hard law d'autre part. Malgré sa fécondité croissante, il est possible de le décrire comme étant la source d'un droit poly-normatif et « open-textured » qui possède à la fois un noyau d'applicabilité, une teneur variable et une juridicité foisonnante. Le profil abrégé de cette construction normative pourrait alors se matérialiser en droit international des investissements par: la prise en compte de l'intérêt général, la responsabilité sociale des entreprises multinationales, la réciprocité par équivalence des droits et obligations des parties, la flexibilité réglementaire et la compatibilité d'avec les autres normes de protection internationales.

Ces dernières années la question du régime de protection des AOP a été particulièrement discutée, notamment par la CJUE. Au travers de décisions récentes, les contours de la notion d’évocation ont été largement précisés dans le sens d’une surprotection de celles-ci. Cette tendance est à contre-courant du durcissement du régime de protection des marques et peut s’avérer insécurisant pour les titulaires de marques. In recent years, the question of the protection regime for PDOs has been the subject of much discussion, particularly by the CJEU. Through recent decisions, the contours of the notion of evocation have been largely construed towards an overprotection of PDOs. This trend goes against the tightening of the trademark protection regime and may prove to be insecure for trademark owners.

Abuse of dominance in the digital markets. Digital markets. Art.102 TFEU: how can it be applied to digital markets? A global perspective: the evolution of the abuse of dominance in digital markets around the world. Europe: the proposal for a regulation on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector (digital market act). United States of America: a time for reforms. China: a new approach towards digital markets. The Google Shopping case: the first step for competition enforcement in digital markets. The European Commission decision (AT.39740). The general Court decision (T-612/17). The Google case in the US: completely different results. A glimpse into the future: the Google Shopping case under the DMA.