Bibliographie sélective OHADA

This article revises and updates a seminal article written by the author in 1998, which was the first attempt to tally how many and what kind of international courts and tribunals existed at that point in time. It contained a chart that placed international courts and tribunals in a larger context, listing them alongside quasi-judicial bodies, implementation-control and other dispute settlement bodies. The present article has three aims. The first is to provide an update, since several new bodies have been created or have become active in the last decade. The second aim is a bit more ambitious. It is time to revise some of the categories and criteria of classification used back in 1998. More than a decade of scholarship in the field by legal scholars and political scientists has made it possible to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon. The abundance of data over a sufficiently long time-span is making it possible to start moving away from a mere ‘folk taxonomy’ towards a more rigorous scientific classification. The hallmark of truly scientific classifications is that classifying is only the final step of a process, and a classification only the means to communicate the end results. Besides making it possible to discover and describe, scientific classifications crucially enable prediction of new entities and categories. Thus, the third aim of this article is to attempt to discern some trends and make some predictions about future developments in this increasingly relevant field of international law and relations.

Les problèmes de santé publique continuent de plomber les perspectives de développement des pays membres de l’Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI). Pour les résoudre, il faut tenir compte de l’impact du système des brevets sur l’accès aux soins de santé des populations, dans un contexte international marqué par le renforcement des droits de propriété intellectuelle depuis l’adoption de l’Accord sur les Aspects des Droits de Propriété Intellectuelle qui touchent au Commerce (ADPIC) en 1994 et la révision de l’Accord de Bangui de l’OAPI en 1999. En réalité, la question de l’efficacité du système des brevets dans la protection de la santé publique est loin d’être close. Pour l’apprécier, la présente étude pose en postulat la primauté de l’intérêt de la santé publique sur les droits privatifs des inventeurs. Ainsi, le droit OAPI intègre les considérations de santé publique en admettant à la brevetabilité les inventions y relatives, et en prévoyant des limitations au droit des brevets dans l’intérêt de la santé publique. Ce faisant, le système des brevets présente des signes d’inadaptation, pour des raisons intrinsèques, mais aussi au regard du faible niveau de développement et des spécificités du système de santé dans les pays membres de l’OAPI, avec notamment la forte présence de la médecine traditionnelle. Il semble néanmoins possible d’aménager un cadre incitatif permettant de concilier les impératifs de santé et les droits privatifs des inventeurs. A travers une analyse économique du droit des brevets appliquée à la santé publique, l’étude replace en définitive l’Etat au centre de la problématique de l’efficacité des normes juridiques.

International electricity trade disputes can arise at three key levels: state to state; investor to state; private party to private party. Parties may be more open to submission of their disputes to international arbitration. However, they should make proper arbitration options according to the types of disputes. At the same time, considering the risks facing dispute resolution, it is imperative to specifically design effective tools to mitigate these risks.

After the end of the Cold War, students of International Relations observed an expansion of inter-state activities at the regional level. Regional and sub-regional groupings appeared to gain momentum as the way in which countries cooperate and should cooperate to pursue peace, stability, wealth and social justice. The surge and resurgence of regionalism has triggered the proliferation of concepts and approaches. The focus of this paper will be on processes and structures of state-led regionalism driven by the delegation of policies and political authority to regional institutions. Based on this understanding of regionalism, the existing literature will be reviewed with regard to three general questions. These questions do not only require research across regions but also allow developing a common research agenda to accumulate knowledge generated about specific regions. First, what are the outcomes of regionalism? How can we describe and compare the results of the delegation of policies and political authority? Second, what are the drivers of regionalism? Why do some governments choose to delegate policies and political authority while others do not? Finally, what are the internal effects of regionalism? How does the delegation of policies and political authority impact back on the domestic structures of the states involved?

L'uniformité du droit du transport international de marchandises par mer GURVAN BRANELLEC Docteur en droit Enseignant-chercheur ESC Bretagne-Brest Chercheur associé UMR AMURE L'uniformité du droit exerce un attrait idéologique sur les esprits épris de systématisation. Comme le souligne le Professeur DELMAS-MARTY, « le droit a horreur du multiple. Sa vocation c'est l'ordre unifié et hiérarchisé, unifié parce que hiérarchisé ». Cette uniformité apparaît comme un idéal de simplicité, de méthode, d'ordre. L'uniformité étant rarement spontanée, l'intervention du législateur est nécessaire. Dans cette optique, l'unification législative apparaît comme un travail d'élaboration scientifique de la solution la plus appropriée aux besoins communs : un droit le plus efficace et le plus simple possible. L'uniformité semble ainsi être porteuse de simplification. Cette simplification résulte de la substitution d'un droit unique à la complexité du système juridique. L'uniformité permettrait aussi d'assurer l'effectivité du droit car « il semble que la multiplication des normes, leur instabilité, leur excessive complexité faite de sédiments successifs pas ou peu cohérents, rend presque impossible un respect scrupuleux du droit » .

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is about the relationship of organisations with society as a whole, and the need for organisations to align their values with societal expectations. Generally, CSR practice in Africa is thought to be adopted from Western business theories although there is evidence to suggest that Western CSR theories are not totally applicable in Africa. This is due to differences in drivers or causes of CSR in the West and in Africa, as well as cultural and managerial traits in Africa. This paper explores the limits of Western CSR Theories in Africa and argues that improved ethical responsibilities, incorporating good governance should be assigned the highest CSR priority in developing countries. It further adds that increased legislation, change in CSR priorities and the application of indigenous CSR theories such as Ubuntu, African Renaissance and Omuluwabi are means of countering the limits of Western CSR theories in Africa. Keywords: CSR, Western CSR Theory, Africa, Ubuntu, African Renaissance, Omuluwabi

Formule coopérative méconnue, la coopérative d’activités et d’emploi (CAE) propose une alternative aux dispositifs d’auto-entrepreneuriat et de micro-entrepreneuriat, ou encore aux sociétés de portage salarial, dont l’essor résulte moins d’une appétence prétendument répandue pour la création d’entreprise que d’une atomisation du travail. Cet article est le fruit d’une recherche-action menée au sein de la CAE Coopaname par deux entrepreneurs-associés : il témoigne d’un processus de reconstruction d’un collectif face aux donneurs d’ordre et de lutte contre le moins-disant social. S’interrogeant sur la pertinence d’une représentation du personnel dans une structure où les salariés sont économiquement autonomes, les auteurs soulignent l’intérêt de cette expérience, qui permet de recréer un droit du travail au sein même du travail indépendant. Les institutions représentatives du travail apparaissent alors comme un outil de résistance à la précarisation et à la tentation de l’entrepreneur de s’auto-exploiter. A cooperative form that is not widely known, ''business and employment cooperatives'' (cooperative d’activités et d’emplois -- CAE) provide an alternative to individual self-employment and micro-enterprise subcontractors as well as conventionally managed companies made up of freelancers, which have grown less from the supposedly widespread desire to create new companies than from the fragmentation of employment. This article is based on the action-research of two member entrepreneurs of the Coopaname CAE. It recounts the process of setting up a collective enterprise dealing with customers’ orders and the fight against poor conditions. Questioning the relevance of employee representation in an organization where the employees are economically independent, the authors highlight the value of this experience, which allows members the same rights as employees while being self-employed. Formal employee representation thus becomes a tool for resisting precarious employment conditions and the temptation for the self-employed to exploit themselves.

The draft uniform act on contracts proposed for adoption by the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Laws in Africa ("OHADA") is a combination of continental and common-law concepts. To be effective in parts of the world where the informal sector is particularly important, for example in the 16 West and Central African states where OHADA currently operates, contract law must be particularly attentive to avoiding traps for the unwary. For this reason, enforcing gratuitous contracts may well be defensible, but requiring registration of commercial actors is not. The complexity of two OHADA laws applicable to contracts, however, increases the risk that law and norms will not overlap, creating just such a trap.

The provisions of Ohada bankruptcy law present the control of execution of the legal settlement procedure for a company in crisis. The lawmaker of Unified Business Laws for Africa institutes different operations of control and persons in charge of these operations. However, after thorough analysis, we can discover many insufficiencies of control. In order to improve the execution of the legal settlement procedure for the safeguarding of company in crisis, it is necessary to re examine the regulation of the control.

Que peut-on dire, en réponse à la question de l’application effective des actes uniformes dans l’espace Ohada? La réponse à cette interrogation a permis la signature par Jimmy Kodo de L’application des actes uniformes de l’Ohada, ouvrage de référence qui nous introduit ici dans l’univers de la jurisprudence Ohada. Docteur en droit privé, l’auteur dans ce document a choisi de se laisser guider essentiellement par la jurisprudence afin de révéler au lecteur, l’état de la pratique du droit Ohada. Cette marque d’originalité et la particularité de l’analyse semblent être à la base de ce qui lui a valu d’être qualifié en préface par Barthélémy Mercadal, d’ouvrage « soigné, bien ordonné et précis »1. Ce livre est utile au praticien du droit car, l’analyse jurisprudentielle touche un ensemble de questions pratiques majeures2. Son utilité pour le monde universitaire se ressent par le caractère clair de l’écriture, la cohérence du plan d’analyse et la profondeur, voire la précision des résultats obtenus. Le politique n’est pas non plus demeuré en reste des cibles de cet ouvrage pour qui il est une alerte à élargir le rôle de la CCJA3 (Cour Commune de Justice et d’arbitrage) dans le processus d’unification du droit en Afrique.

Litigation in developing countries has many defects which has prompted a need for the development of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. Arbitration, being one such substitutive mechanism as a type of private litigation is the most suitable for the same. This paper deals with the need to develop institutional arbitration to co-exist with ad hoc arbitration and scale it down to be available for dispute resolution in developing countries using an illustration of India. Certain recommendations to make institutional arbitration, which is considered to be appropriate for International commercial dispute resolution, suitable for domestic disputes in developing countries have been highlighted.

Si la révocation du dirigeant social, mandataire social et le congédiement du salarié sont admis, peut-on concevoir qu'un associé puisse être exclu de la société dont il est membre? La qualité d'associé pésente a priori un caractère permanent que justifie son origine contractuelle. La question se pose de savoir si, dans le cadre d'une société et dans le droit OHADA, pourrait s'appliquer une sanction consistant à retirer la qualité d'associé à un membre de la société en l'en excluant, sur le fondement de l'intérêt de l'entreprise. C'est ce que l'on appelle le 'squeeze out' de l'associé, expression d'origine anglo-saxonne, consacrée en droit boursier. Il s'agit d'une opération qui s'apparente à l'offre publique de retrait obligatoire: une entreprise indemnise ses actionnaires minoritaires afin qu'ils retirent leurs titres du marché. Dans le cas du 'squeeze out', l'utilité publique aura tendance à s'exprimer au travers de l'utilité sociale. L'exclusion doit être non seulement utile, mais surtout nécessaire. La compréhension du 'squeeze out' comme sanction de celui qui, par son fait ou sa situation, compromet la relation contractuelle, doit être complétée par celle du 'squeeze out' remède, afin que la notion soit susceptible d'être admise dans l'espace OHADA (première partie); appréhendé de manière large comme une exclusion, le 'sqeeze out' est une notion concernant plusieurs disciplines juridiques. Son domaine naturel est le droit boursier, et plus largement le droit des sociétés. Ses applications débordent cependant de ce cadre étroit pour se retrouver dans d'autres domaines que l'auteur qualifie d'artificiels, tout en se limitant au droit du travail et au droit des procédures civiles (deuxième partie)

Competition law and intellectual property rights (IPRs) have evolved historically as two separate systems of law. There is a considerable overlap in the goals of the two systems of law because both are aimed at promoting innovation and economic growth. Yet there are also potential conflicts owing to the means used by each system to promote those goals. IP laws generally offer a right of exclusive use and exploitation to provide a reward to the innovator, to provide an incentive to other innovators and to bring into the public domain innovative information that might otherwise remain trade secrets. Competition authorities regulate near monopolies, mergers and commercial agreements with the aim of maintaining effective competition in markets. This article introduces the concept of IPRs and Competition law. It highlights important areas of conflict between the two laws and also deals with the Indian antitrust law. It concludes by trying to harmonize the conflicts.

This article aims to compare the arbitration agreement of the OHADA legal system to that of the People's Republic of China. In the Chinese legal system the parties to a contract are required to have an arbitration agreement written before the occurrence of any incident in the execution of their contract. The parties must specify in advance, in the said agreement, the chosen arbitration institution for potential disputes. In the OHADA legal system, the parties are free to decide before or during execution of the contract of an arbitration agreement. They may also decide whether in case of a dispute, they would want to refer to an institutional arbitration or an ad hoc arbitration. According to the chosen legal system the consequences are different.

The chapter challenges claims about depoliticization in two different aspects. The first examined claim is that home states are disenfranchised from pursuing investment claims once they are lodged with ICSID. Is it the case that home states simply stay home? This chapter examines instances where home states may have played a role in investment disputes between contracting states. What the record generally reveals, however, is that home states involve themselves in disputes where ICSID hearings are imminent but not yet in play. The second, broader, reading of depoliticization maintains that disputes now are resolved without recourse to lowly politics but to ‘higher’ law. This more extravagant claim is vulnerable to the critique that investor-state dispute resolution is not emptied of political content but, instead, spills over with politics. As the regime implicates the capacity of public authority to act in a wide variety of regulatory contexts, the separation of law from politics is hard to credibly maintain. Not only are investor-state disputes embedded within regimes of political discourse and political power, the ambit of investment arbitrator discretion is so capacious that it can be said of arbitrators, as it has been said of the U.S. Supreme Court, that they can sensibly be regarded as political actors.

The standardization of business law in the Ohada is an original work ever experience in French Black Africa. His goal is to provide legal certainly for private investment. One of the methods to achieve this lies in the prevention and punishment of acts which jeopardize the business. Also, Ohada inserted into the Uniform Acts penal provisions some certain economic crimes and criminal sanctions, the nature and modalities of implementation are subject to the authority of the member states. This process promotes the emergence of a criminal business in space. However, the initiative of Ohada requires some adjustments. Moreover, they should put an emphasis not only on standards of criminalization and penalties, but also on the implementation of compliance standards community. Indeed, the logic that governs the terms of punishment of crimes faces some fundamental principles of criminal law. Moreover, the legislature should necessarily correct this deficiency, even though his legitimate ambition would be to work for a business criminal law adapted to legal and economic context of Africa.