Bibliographie sélective OHADA

There are many employment positions in the labour market that could be filled by the disabled of whom most, given the right environment, could be productive in the workplace. However, there are employers who still labour under the misconception that Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) are unqualified and unproductive although their participation in the workplace could contribute to the national economy, while restoring their dignity and social integration. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) entered into force on 3 May 2008. The CRPD is the first international legally binding treaty aimed specifically at protecting the rights of PWDs. It is expected of ratifying States Parties to either amend their domestic existing laws or to enact new legislation in order to meet their obligations, as set out in the CRPD. In 2008, South Africa ratified the CRPD and the Optional Protocol, thus committing itself to the provisions relating to, inter alia, workplace integration. Article 26 of the Convention mandates States Parties to take effective and appropriate measures to enable PWDs to attain and maintain maximum independence, physical, mental, social and vocational ability, and to ensure their social inclusion. Article 27 stipulates, inter alia, that States Parties shall safeguard and promote the realisation of the right to work, including those who incur a disability during the course of employment. Legislation should make provision for, inter alia the following: • enable PWDs to have effective access to general technical and vocational guidance programmes; • placement services and continued vocational training; • promote employment opportunities and career advancement; • assistance in sourcing, obtaining, maintaining and returning to work; and • reasonable accommodation in the workplace as well as vocational and professional rehabilitation. Although the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act 130 of 1993 was amended recently to include rehabilitation, re-integration and return to work (RTW) as part of its objectives, it will be argued that South Africa needs to initiate targeted legislation and policies that make disability management functions mandatory. Employers’ obligations need to be set out clearly in the Act, because, as it stands, the following lacunae exist: • There is no obligation to appoint Case Managers; • Dismissal protection is not provided for; • The regulation of negative incentives to assist with RTW compliance is lacking; and • The roles of different stakeholders in the RTW process require clarification. Without South Africa having an appropriate and detailed RTW framework, ill or injured employees stand the risk of losing their jobs and becoming dependent on family members and/or disability grants. Against this background, a comparative analysis of international and regional law and the RTW practices of two foreign jurisdictions were made. This enabled the author to devise recommendations and identify the roles of the government, employers, employees and Case Managers. The primary objective of this thesis is to determine how and to what extent regional and international standards and RTW programmes in other countries could assist in developing and amending the current legislative and policy framework in South Africa to promote the RTW of disabled employees.

Le cotitulaire est celui qui, au même titre qu’un ou plusieurs autres, est investi du même droit. Cette idée de détention de droit ou de titularité de droit est accentuée par la nature incorporelle ou immatérielle de la “chose’’ création intellectuelle. Juridiquement en effet les choses incorporelles et plus encore la création intellectuelle semblent se réduire à chacun des droits portant sur elles pendant que seul le droit de propriété saisit la totalité de la chose, de la chose corporelle. La nature de droit réel sur une “chose’’ immatérielle, droit non absolu, droit différent de la propriété de droit commun sur cette chose a été révélée et retenue. Lorsqu’on analyse alors la cotitularité du droit de propriété intellectuelle, c’est-à-dire lorsqu’on se situe au niveau du droit, de la relation interne entre un sujet et son objet, que ce sujet ne peut exclure deux ou trois autres, et ce, de façon définitive, le problème n’est pas seulement au niveau de l’exclusivité des parts telle que régie par le régime de l’indivision du Code civil. Il se pose une question d’exercice du même droit entre personnes titulaires de ce droit unique et égal entre eux, question non réglée, voire soigneusement éludée par ce texte. Les cotitulaires du droit de propriété intellectuelle font son acquisition ensemble pour pouvoir en bénéficier, pas pour avoir une part de la création intellectuelle, chose immatérielle. La présente thèse démontre l’inapplicabilité du régime de droit commun de l’indivision aux droits de propriété intellectuelle et montre que le contrat est le seul régime d’exercice du droit de propriété intellectuelle en situation de cotitularité de droit.

With the developments happening globally that are aimed at curbing base erosion and profit shifting by multinationals, improving the resolution of transfer pricing disputes has been identified as one of the key issues. This thesis investigates the challenges uniquely faced by African countries that militate against the use of the OECD transfer pricing dispute resolution mechanisms. The thesis starts by reflecting on the effect of transfer pricing manipulation by multinational enterprises in Africa in particular. Transfer pricing manipulation is one of the causes of the so-called tax gap, which is, the gap between anticipated and actual revenue collection. The aggression by revenue authorities against transfer pricing manipulation in order to close this gap has triggered a lot of transfer pricing adjustments. These adjustments have resulted in multiple transfer pricing disputes. In the analysis of the adopted OECD dispute resolution mechanisms, the thesis focuses on the effectiveness of the mutual agreement procedure (MAP), the advance pricing arrangement (APA) and the mandatory binding arbitration (MBA). It identifies the problems that result in the failure of or the delay in the resolution of many transfer pricing disputes by analysing the domestic frameworks that exist in four African countries namely: South Africa, Kenya, Uganda and Ghana. The thesis identifies problems such as the absence of a tax treaty network within the African continent, the use of underdeveloped double tax agreements and the lack of commitment from African countries to subscribe to and ratify multilateral conventions. These problems delay or stifle the resolution of tax treaty disputes. They also cause uncertainty for taxpayers and lead to continued tax avoidance by multinational enterprises that essentially avoid paying tax in African countries where the economic activities of these enterprises take place. The thesis also identifies the importance of other OECD supporting tools such as the exchange of tax information in the resolution of transfer pricing disputes. It focuses on tools such as country by country reports, the master file, the local file and simultaneous tax examination as covered by the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. The thesis contributes to the resolution of the identified problems with transfer pricing dispute resolution in Africa by recommending certain improvements that can be effected. These recommendations entail, regarding the MAP, the expansion of tax treaty networks by African countries and the establishment of a Tax Treaty Dispute Resolution Committee by ATAF. Regarding the APA, it is recommended that African countries should sign the multilateral instrument (MLI) and make use of advance tax rulings (ATRs) as alternatives. With respect to the MBA, this thesis recommends that African countries should use optional arbitration by effectively using article 25(4) of the OECD Model tax convention (MTC). It also recommends that African countries must enhance their tax transparency by ratifying multilateral conventions that seek to address international tax co-operation and to improve compliance with transfer pricing documentation requirements in order to make the resolution of transfer pricing disputes more effective.

This study explores the liability associated with the use of autonomous vehicles. With the increase in efforts by automobile industries to manufacture driverless cars, the issue of liability occupies the front seat of the discussion. A major benefit of autonomous and connected vehicles is their potential to ameliorate, if not eradicate, avoidable accidents on roads. Currently, it is estimated that 90% of road accidents are caused by human error. The epoch of driverless vehicles, where the narrative will drastically change, is upon us. This means a shift away from human liability to machine liability, since these technologies have in-built algorithms to ensure autonomous decisions by the vehicle. Product liability becomes crucial in the wake of driverless cars. The gradual and ultimate shift of liability from the traditional human driver to the machine ‘driver’ coupled with the cross-border sale of driverless vehicles provide justification for scholarly attention. Accidents may now be attributed to technological error and not human mistake. Conflict of law issues become central in instances where manufacturers and users live in different parts of the world... <br>LL.M. (International Commercial Law)

This thesis investigates the process of integration in the African Union (AU), and the reasons behind the slow progress of the AU to achieve the goal of deeper economic integration. In the research I explore the role of an AU member state in the process of African integration: Algeria. The research scrutinises the development of Algerian foreign policy towards the AU and highlights any changes in the Algerian FP attitudes and the reasons behind these changes. Similarly, the research unveils the reality of the decision-making process in this country, and the different agents that influence it. To achieve the main goals of the research, different theoretical choices were elaborated. This resulted in researching European integration theories; Neofunctionalism was, then, selected to study the Algerian development in the making of its foreign policy in general and towards the African Union specifically. Some concepts within the Neofunctionalist thinking were used including the principle of the shift of loyalties, the socialisation process, the spillover system, and the role of interest groups in the process of integration. Moreover, the theory of Regionalism was used to examine the process of integration in the AU discovering new reasons that led to the slow development of economic integration in Africa. Consequently, the research highlights the current obstacles and challenges that have hindered the process of economic integration in the AU, including the poverty of most of the AU member states, the limited financial budget of the Union and the instability of the majority of African countries. Furthermore, the research unveiled the lack of political will towards AU economic integration plans. Hence, this contribution extends beyond the traditional models of explanation, and discusses the situation in AU member states (in this case Algeria) and points to other factors as well such as the weakness of the lobbyist activities and business groups in Algeria specifically and Africa more generally. The thesis, then, focusses on Algeria’s supportive and active status in the AU security sector, highlighting how Algeria has been successful in pushing its own security and antiterrorism agenda to the AU level, thereby demonstrating that integration into the AU is possible, if it is backed by influential member states, and wider coalitions can be built to promote integration and cooperation.

The lack of long-term and stable financial support for SMEs is the fundamental reason why enterprises cannot develop for a long time. At present, the situation of financing difficulties for SMEs is becoming more and more serious. Private equity (PE) investment has emerged as an important financing method. Private equity investment, while broadening the financing channels of SME capital markets, brings advanced management experience to enterprises, which helps enterprises to develop rapidly and effectively. According to the statistics of the Zero2IPO Research Center, the active investment institutions in China's equity market have grown from more than 200 in 2000 to more than 14,000 in 2018, with a total asset under management over RMB 9 trillion. Great progress has been realized in the scale and development of the industry. In addition, with the launch of the GEM in 2009, PE investment industry met new opportunities of development and became popular. At present, the development of China's PE investment business is still at an early stage. Neither relevant policies, laws and regulations nor supporting mechanisms are mature enough. Therefore, researches on China's PE investment business needs to be carried out. In this context, more and more scholars are beginning to focus on the field of PE investment. This paper focuses on whether PE investments can fundamentally increase the enterprise value. The basic theory is sorted out to serve as the theoretical basis for this study. Through a systematic analysis, this paper draws out 4paths of PE investment affecting enterprises, which are the influence on technological innovation, corporate governance activities, dividend distribution decision and earnings management, respectively. And through empirical analysis, it finds the empirical basis of the impact of PE investment on enterprise value, and investigates how PE investments affect enterprise value based on the difference in investment characteristics such as investment duration and whether the investment is joint or not. This paper conducts an empirical test by selecting the listed companies of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange GEM in 2015-2018 as sample. The results show that the investment of PE firm will significantly increase the value of the target enterprise. This paper makes a detailed analysis of sample data. The conclusion of the study is that private equity investment will have a significant impact on the value of target enterprises. Private equity investment plays an important role in the modern governance structure of small and medium-sized enterprises in China This paper enriches the existing literature and provides constructive suggestions for the health development of the PE investment market. 中小企业缺乏长期稳定的资金来源是企业无法长久发展的根本性原因，目前 中小企业融资难的形势越来越严峻，私募股权投资作为一种重要的融资手段应运 而生。私募股权投资在拓宽中小企业资本市场融资渠道的同时，给企业带来先进的 管理经验，有助于企业快速并有效的发展。据清科研究中心的统计数据显示，中国 股权市场活跃的投资机构已由 2000 年的 200 多家发展到 2018 年的 1.4 万多家，管 理资本量超过 9 万亿人民币，行业规模和发展实现了质的飞跃。此外，随着 2009 年创业板的推出，私募股权投资行业的发展业迎来了新的希望和契机，私募股权投 资业务开始盛行。目前，我国私募股权投资业务的发展还处于早期阶段，无论是从 政策还是法律法规再到配套机制，都还不够健全。因此，对我国私募股权投资业务 的研究亟需开展，在此背景下，越来越多的学者开始关注私募股权投资这一领域。 本文研究的重点是私募股权投资是否能够根本上提升企业价值。本文首先对 基础理论进行了梳理，以此作为研究的理论依据，而后论述了私募股权投资对被投 资企业价值影响的理论分析，。本文通过系统的理论分析得出了私募股权投资影响 企业的路径，并通过实证分析，得到私募股权投资对企业价值的影响的实证依据， 并且从投资期限和是否联合投资等投资特征的差异性，深入研究私募股权投资对 企业价值的影响方式。本文通过选取深圳证券交易所创业板 2015-2018 年的上市企 业作为样本，进行了实证检验，并得出以下研究结论:私募股权投资的参与会显著 提升目标企业的价值，同时，私募股权投资的期限越长、联合投资机构的数量越多， 目标企业的价值也会越高。 本文基于理论又结合实际，对样本数据进行了分析，研究的结论是私募股权投 资会对被投资企业的价值产生显著影响。私募股权投资对于我国中小企业的现代 化治理结构起到了完善作用。本文的研究结果丰富了现有文献，对私募股权投资市 场健康发展提出了建设性的建议。