Bibliographie sélective OHADA

El Convenio de Nueva York de 1958 permite se busque el reconocimiento y la ejecución de un laudo OHADA en terceros Estados. Sin embargo, admite el empleo de la normativa interna para regir el procedimiento y deja a salvo cuestiones relacionadas con la inmunidad soberana de los Estados. Las nuevas leyes adoptadas en España en materia de cooperación jurídica internacional e inmunidad soberana, establecen la intervención del MAEC cuando un Estado extranjero sea demandado ante tribunales españoles como es el caso Commercial Bank / Guinea Ecuatorial. Esta previsión puede implicar un giro de la jurisprudencia hacia posturas más cercanas a la inmunidad absoluta. Como se verá en este artículo, aunque CBGE haya obtenido el execuátur del laudo en España y logrado el embargo del avión titularidad de Ceiba, las medidas coercitivas de ejecución podrán ser recurridas en revisión por el Estado, quien podrá plantear una estrategia fundamentalmente en dos direcciones: (i) bien demostrando la finalidad soberana del aparato embargado, para defender así su carácter inmune a la ejecución, o (ii) bien alegando que la persona jurídica afectada por el embargo no ha sido parte en el arbitraje y por tanto no es la deudora del laudo. La práctica jurisprudencial internacional ha demostrado que existen gran des posibilidades de que el tribunal termine levantando el embargo si se demuestra fehacientemente alguna de estas dos defensas.

L’arbitrage de droit commun est régi par l’Acte uniforme relatif à l’arbitrage, véritable loi de procédure harmonisée applicable dans les 17 États membres de l’OHADA. Aux côtés de l’arbitrage CCJA dont il est complémentaire, il a sa légitimité et sa vocation propre qui est de permettre le développement d’un arbitrage de proximité. Conforme aux standards internationaux, qu’il soit ad hoc ou institutionnel, il met au cœur du processus les parties, afin de créer une véritable culture locale de l’arbitrage. À ce titre, il donne un rôle essentiel aux institutions nationales d’arbitrage dont la connaissance de terrain et la proximité des acteurs permettent l’enrichissement de la lex arbitri, jusqu’à permettre aujourd’hui d’inspirer une réforme de cette loi uniforme de l’arbitrage OHADA qui tend vers toujours plus d’efficacité et de modernité. Il nous sera donné en particulier de faire part de l’expérience du Centre d’arbitrage du GICAM, Douala (Cameroun). The Uniform Act on arbitration is the ordinary law that governs arbitration. This Uniform Act is a harmonized procedural enactment that is applicable in the 17 member states of OHADA. It exists alongside, and is complementary to CCJA arbitration. But it has its own legitimacy and its own vocation, which is to allow the development of an arbitration of proximity. Whether considered from an ad hoc arbitration viewpoint, or an institutional arbitration viewpoint, the Uniform Act complies with international arbitration standards. It places the parties at the heart of the arbitral procedure in order to create a local culture of arbitration. In this regard, it provides an important role to national arbitration institutions whose understanding of the field and proximity to stakeholders permit the enrichment of the lex arbitri. Today, this role given to national arbitration institutions has inspired a reform of the Uniform Act on arbitration, which aspires for more efficiency and modernity. We shall, in particular, share the experience of the GICAM Arbitration Centre in Douala Cameroon.

It is not uncommon for states to engage in arbitration proceedings with their investors (“Investor-State Arbitration” or “International Investment Arbitration”) administered under the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes. When these parties engage in document production during evidentiary proceedings, there arises an issue with regards to documents requested by the investor, which is considered as a “state secret” by the state. Based on the IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration (“IBA Rules”), states may have particular interest to refuse the production of a document. This is based on the argument that a document may be exempted from production if the document qualifies as a state secret by virtue of Article 9 of the IBA Rules. This paper will discuss appropriate measures to be taken by tribunals in order to allow for material and relevant evidence to be produced during proceedings, which may be crucial in being able to prove the case of the investor in the case of a conflict pertaining to the production of documents containing state secrets.

Les litiges font partie intégrante du monde des affaires. Les gérer efficacement constitue un défi majeur pour le maintien de la paix sociale et l’accroissement du business. Dans sa mission de sensibilisation aux Marl, le Centre d’arbitrage et de médiation de Madagascar (CAMM) a élaboré et proposé une Charte confiance de règlement des litiges. Cette Charte a pour objectif la continuité des affaires, le respect de la loi et un marché sain et prospère.

La sécurité juridique est un idéal qu’il semble difficile de réaliser dans un environnement pluraliste, à l’instar de celui du Cameroun dans lequel il existe d’une part des règles traditionnelles d’inspiration locale et d’autre part des règles dites « modernes » d’inspiration étrangère. L’impératif d’unification a conduit à l’adoption de textes dans plusieurs domaines, y compris en matière de procédure pénale. Ces textes s’appliqueront sur tout le territoire en lieu et place des règles préexistantes. Mais, le constat fait en pratique est que les normes adoptées en général et celles de procédure pénale en particulier, ne bénéficient pas d’une confiance légitime de la majorité de ses acteurs. Elles souffrent de ce fait d’une crise de crédibilité et surtout d’effectivité en raison d’un éloignement persistant de la justice qu’elles proposent des réalités locales. Cet éloignement, apparaissant ici entre autre comme la source de la crise, a d’importantes implications (sur le système, et surtout sur ses acteurs) qui permettent de mieux comprendre ou expliquer la crise et ses manifestations. Legal security is an ideal that seems difficult to achieve in a pluralistic environment, like that of Cameroon in which there is traditional rules and modern rules. However, to remove this normative plurality, the national legislature decided to adopt after independence texts in each of the branches of law, including criminal procedure, texts which would should be apply throughout the territory instead of those that already existed in each part of the country. But it is clear that these legal norms of criminal procedure, are suffering from a crisis of credibility in regard to the fact that people do not truly belong to them, because the justice they contain is far from their local realities. This situation has implications in the system which can explain the crisis and his manifestations.

OHADA’da benimsenmiş terminolojiye göre teminat mektubu olarak anılan bağımsız garanti, teminat hukuku alanındaki önemli yeniliklerden biridir. Teminat mektubunun sözleşmesel nitelik taşımakta olduğu Yeknesak Belge’deki tanımda açıkça ortaya koyulmuştur, fakat revizyon söz konusu tanımı taahhüt kavramından bahsetmek suretiyle tartışmaya açık hale getirmektedir. Teminat mektubunun çeşitli şekli koşullara uyması gerekmektedir; bu koşullara uyulmaması geçersizliğe sebep olur. Teminat mektubu ile yalnızca tüzel kişiler borç altına girebilir, gerçek kişilerin teminat mektubu vermesi mümkün değildir. Teminat mektubunun özellikleri arasında bağımsız olması ve defi ileri sürmenin mümkün olmaması bulunmaktadır. Yeknesak Belge teminatın süresini sınırlamaktadır. Ancak belgenin revize edilmiş halinde süresiz teminat verme olanağı getirilmiştir. Talimat veren hile veya kötüye kullanma durumunda ödeme yapmama imkanına sahiptir. Bu koruma çerçevesinde, garanti veren ve kontrgarantör de talimat veren gibi rücu imkanına sahiptir. Rücu kişisel olabileceği gibi halefiyete de dayanabilir.

The rapid increase in globalization in the last two and a half decades has caused businesses to easily transcend national boundaries. States respond to such flexibility by harmonising their laws to easily adapt to such changes in order to attract investments. This is the case with the OHADA jurisdiction where its architects foresaw an economic spur through integration of business laws. Though expected to stay within the bounds of the law, the law cannot absolutely determine how businesses should prioritise their stakes. As such, ethics comes in to complement the law. This article uses the stakeholder theory of corporate control to investigate the place of ethics in OHADA, as applied in Cameroon. It concludes that an altruistic social conscience is still highly wanting.

This paper contributes to measuring the influence of business (and tax) law reforms on sub-Saharan African countries tax mobilization ability. Relying on a new business law reform indicator, our results validate the significant impact of corporate law modernization on governmental revenue, and unearth a complementary effect between business and tax law reforms.

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law prepared the first global treaty specifically devoted to electronic commerce law, the United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts. That treaty builds on the highly successful UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce and the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signatures. This article describes the main goals of the Electronic Communications Convention and its scope of application. In particular, it illustrates how that Convention may fully enable the use of electronic means under other widely adopted treaties such as the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards and the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. The article also describes the main substantive provisions of the Electronic Communications Convention, in particular clarifying how that Convention updates and completes the provisions of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce. This Model Law is the backbone of electronic commerce law in numerous countries and a de facto legislative standard insouthern Africa. Finally, the article describes the manner (or patterns) in which the adoption of the Electronic Communications Convention takes place. It stresses that, while the Convention is often used as a source of inspiration for domestic law reform, in order for it to achieve all its intended goals, its formal adoption as a treaty is necessary. The final message is therefore a call upon all states to consider the adoption of that Convention in order to support the broader use of electronic means, especially in the light of the implications for economic development and the promotion of paperless trade.

It is impossible to draw a distinct line between force majeure and change of circumstances, because the two overlap. In order to regulate both force majeure and change of circumstances, the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) has adopted a unified model in article 79, whereas Chinese law adopts a dual model by treating them as different things and regulating them in different articles. Where the purpose of a contract becomes impossible to achieve because of a force majeure and both the CISG and Chinese Contract Law (the CCL) adopt the same model of termination of the contract, the contract should be terminated by one party with a notice to the other party instead of ipso facto avoidance. In a case of a change of circumstances, in order to terminate the contract, both the CISG and the CCL actually follow the path of raising an action by a notice of avoidance or termination to theother party. Both approaches have their merits and demerits but the differences between them in practice are not as large as presumed. Where force majeure and change of circumstances overlap each other, possible ways for termination of the contract are for a party either to choose their preferred solution or to follow the lex specialis derogat generali. The latter way is preferred in this article; and while in an action for termination the judge may balance the interests of both parties in making a final decision, the uniform application of the law, the safety of the transaction and the fairness of the judgment may be ensured in so doing.

The Gulf of Guinea states (GOGs) discussed in this article comprise a diverse group of more than 20 African states bordering on the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea. They are former colonies of Belgium, France, Great Britain and Germany. These states are of strategic importance to the United States, the European Union, India and China because of their tremendous natural resources that include biodiversity, oil, gas and other strategic minerals. But to what extent are they also of strategic importance not only to South Africa but to SADC member states? After all, the GOGs boast of their sea routes being safer and more convenient for sea transport. Post-colonial independence finds these states still adopting a mixture of foreign legal systems side by side with indigenous laws and customs. The region is still underdeveloped, with poor physical infrastructure, weak government structures, an inefficient legal system, and internecine strife and other inter-state disputes exerting a debilitating influence. The NEPAD Plan of Action of 2001 looks to the regional economic communities (RECs) to become the leaders in regional economic co-operation and integration. Although the GOGs are characterised at present by overlapping membership of various communities, they have enjoyed some successes based on the newly found petroleum commodity which, wisely managed, can help to increase intra-African trade and produce a viable extensive African market buttressed by South Africa's economic advances into the rest of Africa. In some of the regions in Africa RECs such as ECOWAS and SADC have been able to transform their economic and monetary co-operation efforts into a powerful driving force for economic policy co-ordination and integration, but a strong, credible, effective and efficient legal framework with sustainable supporting institutions is now needed. South Africa is well poised to assist with deepening the political and economic integration in the GOGs by intensifying foreign direct investment (FDI), capacity-building and training projects, and the transfer of skills and technology. But the RECs overlapping membership needs to be rationalised, the negative influences of the superpowers need to be resisted, and support is required to maintain peace and stability and ensure the security of the maritime regimes. A strong, independent supra-national body that is also able to supervise and monitor revenues from oil for the benefit of the region as a whole should be established.