Bibliographie sélective OHADA

L’OHADA et le Mercosur sont deux organisations régionales qui ont été créées afin d’accentuer l’intégration et de favoriser la sécurité judiciaire et juridique pour les opérateurs du commerce international. En d’autres mots, leur objectif est d’aider au développement économique des pays membres. Dès le fonctionnement de ces deux organisations, le recours à l’arbitrage a été privilégié comme mode de règlement des différends liés au commerce international. Partant de là, il nous est apparu envisageable d’établir un lien entre la notion de développement et celle arbitrage commercial international. Presque vingt ans après la création de l’OHADA et du Mercosur, cette étude se propose d’évaluer les liens entre l’arbitrage et le développement. Cette évaluation se base sur l’observation de l’influence de l’arbitrage sur le processus d’intégration et sur l’apport de cette technique aux efforts d’amélioration de la sécurité judiciaire et juridique dans le milieu du comme international.

L'arbitrage est un mode de résolution des litiges par l'intermédiaire d'un tribunal arbitral composé d'un ou plusieurs arbitres. Il permet, comme devant les tribunaux étatiques, de régler un litige en vertu d'une sentence rendue à l'issue d'une procédure arbitrale dans laquelle chacune des parties doit prouver ce qu'elle allègue afin d'établir la conviction des arbitres. C'est par le recours aux divers modes de preuve inspirés des différents systèmes juridiques notamment du système de Common Law et du système de droit civil que les plaideurs pourront atteindre cette finalité.En revanche, parce que l'arbitrage international ne possède ni for ni législation spéciaux, l'administration des preuves dans une instance arbitrale internationale revêt un caractère sui generis de fait que l'arbitrage international a reconnu un système de preuve qui a utilisé les avantages des divers systèmes juridiques. Ainsi, on retrouve que la preuve écrite, qu'elle soit sur support papier ou sur support électronique, est administrée selon le model civiliste qui donne la primauté à une preuve préconstituée à l'avance. Mais, en ce qui concerne la preuve par témoin, l'influence des droits de Common Law paraît claire surtout que dans la plupart des cas, le pouvoir de nommer et d'interroger les témoins revient aux plaideurs qui utilisent la méthode d'Examination lors de l'interrogation des témoins. C'est aussi le cas de l'expertise qui est souvent considérée comme une preuve orale dans laquelle il revient aux parties le pouvoir de désigner les experts et de les interroger suivant l'interrogatoire direct et le contre interrogatoire tout comme des témoins. Ainsi, les preuves dans l'arbitrage international peuvent être reparties en preuves écrites et preuves orales dont les premières sont constituées de l'écrit sur support papier ou sur support électronique et les secondes sont formées par la preuve par témoin et la preuve par expertise.

The increase in international trade creates a growing number of disputes between parties from different countries. Arbitration has become the most preferred mechanism to solve disputes in international trade. If a party does not voluntarily comply with an award, the successful party must apply for recognition and enforcement of the award in order to obtain the remedies. Cameroon is one of the major business markets in West and Central Africa, several companies committed to arbitral procedures are likely to have assets in Cameroon. This means that if a party fails to honour an award, an enforcement procedure may begin within a Cameroonian court. The enforcement procedures in Cameroon are sufficient and do comply with international standards. The most used and important instruments for recognition and enforcement are the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards of 1958 and the Uniform Act on Arbitration 1999 in the OHADA territory, to which Cameroon is a signatory State. According to this Convention and the Uniform Act, an arbitral award may be refused enforcement under certain grounds laid down in them. There are various types of arbitral awards contemplated by the Cameroonoan legislature and will be herein examined to see how they can be enforced in Cameroon. An analysis of the legal situation in Cameroon confirms that there are problems associated with the enforcement of arbitral awards. These problems are not, however, connected with the concept of arbitral awards, but rather with the entire judicial system in Cameroon. Even though an enforcing party can do little to overcome these problems, certain measures can be taken in order to ease the enforcement procedure

Arbitration as a mode of dispute settlement has been growing steadily all over the world. The momentum for commercial arbitration in particular was provided by the 1985 UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration (“the Model Law”). Legislation based on the Model Law has been enacted in many countries. The arbitration laws of three of these countries, Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, are selected for consideration in this dissertation because of their common origins, similar statutes, similar problems, shared experiences, and their regional distribution. As the writer’s arbitration practice is based in Kenya, that jurisdiction is the primary, albeit not the only, source and foundation for this work, the focal point of reference and the citations from the law and practice incorporated in this research. The work consists of three chapters. Chapter one is a brief introduction and an overview of arbitration. This is followed by the statement of the research question, the justification for the research, methodology and the structure and content of the dissertation. Chapter two describes the legal and contextual framework for the investigation of the research questions in the selected jurisdictions of Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Customary Law arbitration is included as a significant feature of African arbitration law. The UNCITRAL Model Law, the Arbitration Act, 1995 (Kenya), the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1988 (Nigeria), the Arbitration Act, 1996 (Zimbabwe), the Arbitration Act, 1996 (England), and the South African Draft Arbitration Bill are all used as legislative or statutory points of reference in the discussion of the research questions. Chapter 3 contains the main focus of the dissertation in which six recurrent arbitration problems in Kenya are discussed in the context of domestic arbitration. The research investigates (i) the illusiveness of consent as the basis for consensual arbitration (ii) jurisdictional challenges (iii) the procedural powers of the arbitral tribunal (iv) the disruptive effect of adjournments and postponements on the arbitral process (v) constraints on the granting of interim relief and (vi) the enforcement of the arbitral award. Original, creative and innovative proposals in response to these problems include: the express legislative recognition of the manifestation of consent in both the verbal and written forms of the arbitration agreement, the use of the constructive dispute resolution technique, statutory recognition of customary law arbitration, the use of an expedited arbitration procedure, the award of exemplary and punitive damages in arbitration, a code of sanctions to facilitate the arbitration process, and a simplified method of enforcement and execution of the arbitral award. The dissertation concludes with reflections on the future of arbitration in Africa, and the need for modernization and harmonization of arbitration laws for peaceful resolution of disputes and serious conflicts across Africa. The aim of this study is best illustrated by a short story: In the early nineties there was a man, untrained in any known discipline, who strutted court corridors, trade centres and market places, carrying a placard advertising himself to lawyers, traders and marketers as “An Arbitrator and Private Judge”. He attracted business, charged a handsome percentage fee on the value of the claim, was duly paid, until officialdom caught up with him and put paid to his burgeoning career as “Arbitrator-Judge”. But the reckless enthusiasm spawned by his wit and imagination, and the idiosyncratic practices in dispute resolution persisted and are manifest in Kenyan arbitration culture today. The need to remove bad practices, avoidable impediments, and inefficiency in the arbitration culture of Kenya in order to make its procedures and processes more efficacious, is the heart of this study.

L'arbitrage est devenu le mécanisme de règlement des différends dans les contrats internationaux. L'arbitrage international offre aux parties non seulement la possibilité d’éviter les juridictions étatiques, mais facilite également l'exécution internationale des sentences arbitrales. Dans ce cadre, la Convention de New York de 1958 sur la reconnaissance et l’exécution des sentences arbitrales étrangères constitue sans aucun doute le traité le plus important dans le domaine de l'arbitrage international, et a connu un succès remarquable au cours de sa ratification par 147 États. Cette étude apporte une analyse approfondie sur la mise en application et l’interprétation par les différentes juridictions des dispositions prévues par cette Convention, surtout en matière de reconnaissance et d’exécution des sentences arbitrales étrangères.

Due to the expansion of business transaction across the globe, the private sector demands an adequate legal framework that is sufficiently clear, modern, predictable and transparent to permit investment with a sense of security. The Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa (Organisation pour l’harmonisation en Afrique du Droit des Affaires) is generally known by its French acronym OHADA. As long-standing idea, the foundation of the OHADA Treaty was first laid during a meeting of finance ministers of the members of the franc CFA1 area held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in April 1991. A group of experts, led by Senegalese Justice Keba Mbaye, was appointed to conduct a feasibility study on a form of legal collaboration designed to promote economic integration and attract investments.2 Identifying low investment as a major obstacle to economic growth, Keba Mbaye presented his report to the French-speaking African summit in Libreville, Gabon, in October 1992, recommending the creation of a supranational organization comprising the entire franc area. The recommendation was adopted and a steering committee of three experts were appointed and tasked with drafting an international instrument as well as identifying the areas of law to be harmonized. The OHADA was established through the treaty of Port Louis in Mauritius on 17th October, 19933 The treaty is open to any Member State of the Organization of African Unity (AU) as well as any other non-member of the AU invited to join with the common agreement of all the Member States.4 The OHADA has progressively become the common business law in anglophone and francophone African countries, taking the best from the civil law and the common law systems.5 The OHADA provides its Member States with 1) a single, modern, flexible and reliable business law adapted to each country’s economy; 2) arbitration as an appropriate and trustworthy way to settle disputes; and 3) an opportunity for training judges and judicial staff and ensuring their specialisation. In May 2003, the uniform OHADA business law came into force in the sub-Saharan African States of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Chad, Togo and later the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The OHADA Treaty secures a legal framework for the conduct of business in Africa.6 Pursuant to Article 53 of the OHADA Treaty, any member State of the African Union may become a member, if it wishes to do so.7 Many countries are currently giving active consideration to joining the OHADA common system of business law.8 Most of the countries have a French colonial heritage, with the exception of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (former Belgian colony), Guinea-Bissau (former Portuguese colony), Equatorial Guinea (former Spanish colony), and Togo and Cameroon (formerly under partly British and partly French colonial rule). French is also an official language in most of the countries and many OHADA sources are only available in French. 9 It is interesting to know that the Council of Ministers of the OHADA organisation which is the legislative organ of the organisation have adopted the following uniform business law: the general commercial laws, corporate laws and rules concerning different types of joint ventures, laws concerning secured transactions, debt recovery and enforcement laws, bankruptcy laws, arbitration law, accountability law, and law regulating contract for the carriage of goods by roads.10 The OHADA treaty established the Common Court of Justice and Arbitration (CCJA) which is a supranational11 judicial institution based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.12 2.

Cette thèse a pour objet de déterminer à quelles conditions l’arbitre international, saisi d’un litige relatif à un contrat de joint venture sino-étrangère, est susceptible d’apporter une solution aux cocontractants et une contribution à la construction du droit de l’arbitrage des investissements étrangers en Chine. L’examen des conditions d’accès à l’arbitrage et de la détermination et de la mise en oeuvre, par l’arbitre international, des règles de droit permettra de cerner les limites du caractère véritablement international de l’arbitrage auquel est soumis le contrat de joint venture sino-étrangère. La limitation de l’autonomie des parties en droit chinois de l’arbitrage et en droit international privé chinois impose des contraintes à l’arbitre international, siégeant en Chine ou à l’étranger tant pour apprécier la validité de la clause compromissoire et l’existence et l’étendue ratione personae et ratione materiae du consentement à l’arbitrage, que pour déterminer et appliquer les règles de droit auxquelles est soumis le litige. L’examen des solutions apportées par l’arbitre international permettra d’apprécier son apport substantiel à la clarification des conditions de formation du contrat de joint venture sino-étrangère, qu’il s’agisse des conditions de fond, tirées de la qualification des parties et de l’existence et de la sincérité de leur consentement au contrat de joint venture, que des conditions de forme, tirées de l’approbation des contrats d’investissement. Cet apport est confirmé en matière d’obligations des parties, par la reconnaissance et la diversification des obligations pécuniaires, de participation et de coopération auxquelles sont tenus les associés de l’entreprise commune

<p>This book examines the law, national and/or international, that arbitral tribunals apply on the merits to settle disputes between foreign investors and host states. In light of the freedom that the disputing parties and the arbitrators have when designating the applicable law, and because of the hybrid nature of legal relationship between investors and states, there is significant interplay between the national and the international legal order in investor-state arbitration. The book contains a comprehensive analysis of the relevant jurisprudence, legal instruments, and scholarship surrounding arbitral practice with respect to the application of national law and international law. It investigates the awards in which tribunals referred to consistency between the legal orders, and suggests alternatives to the traditional doctrines of monism and dualism to explain the relationship between the national and the international legal order. The book also addresses the territorialized or internationalized nature of the tribunals; relevant choice-of-law rules and methodologies; and the scope of the arbitration agreement, including the possibility of host states presenting counterclaims in investment treaty arbitration. Ultimately, it argues that in investor–state arbitration, national and international law do not only coexist but may be applied simultaneously; they are also interdependent, each complementing and informing the other both indirectly and directly for a larger common good: enforcement of rights and obligations regardless of their national or international origin.</p>