BIT

The News and Events category publishes the latest News and Events relating to International Economic Law relating to Africa and the Global South. Every week, Afronomicslaw.org receive the News and Events in their e-mail accounts. The News and Events published every week include conferences, major developments in the field of International Economic Law in Africa at the national, sub-regional and regional levels as well as relevant case law. News and Events with a Global South focus are also often included.

With the recent decision by the African Heads of States to adopt the Protocol on Investment to the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area, Dr Dominic Dagbanja’s monograph on The Investment Treaty Regime and Public interest in Africa is a welcome addition to the growing list of monographs on Africa’s foreign investment law regimes. This book which is a based on Dr Dagbanja’s 2015 doctoral dissertation provides an original contribution to existing literature by focusing on the constitutionality of investment treaties. It deals with themes and issues which are critical for understanding Africa’s complex foreign investment protection and promotion laws. Although scholars have examined the linkages between constitutional law and international investment law notably using case studies from Europe and Latin America, this is the first monograph to focus on this issue from an African perspective.

There is no gainsaying the fact that Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) constitute a major impediment to Africa’s sustainable development. In fact, IFFs have a direct impact on a country’s ability to raise, retain and mobilise its own resources to finance sustainable development. Its negative impact further includes draining a country’s foreign exchange reserves, reducing domestic resource mobilization, preventing the flow of benefits of foreign direct investment, and worsening insecurity, poverty and economic inequality.

In March 2018, African nations embarked on a historic journey to reshape their trade landscape through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Originally scheduled for implementation in mid-2020, a pandemic-induced delay pushed the launch to January 2021. Aggregating over 1.2 billion people, the AfCFTA promises to create a massive market with a combined GDP of over $3 trillion. With 54 signatories and 47 countries ratifying the agreement, the AfCFTA aims to foster a pan-African free trade zone, enhance regional development prospects, and promote intra-African trade. Key mechanisms are progressively dismantling trade barriers and promoting investment. This blog post delves into the current state of investment dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms across Africa, the potential of the AfCFTA and its investment protocol to catalyse change, and the need for a balanced multilateral approach. Through collaboration, innovation, and a commitment to equity, Africa can create a new paradigm for investment dispute resolution that truly reflects the continent's values and aspirations.

This blog argues that the conservation of the environment is essential to the realisation of sustainable development. Environmental conservation can be achieved by having express inclusion of environmental protection provisions in BITs. Where such provisions are lacking, it may be difficult for a third-world country to argue that measures that directly or indirectly expropriate an investor's investment were taken to protect the environment. critiqued the Ugandan Model BIT for lacking provisions on the conservation and protection of the environment in FDI. Using the Morocco-Nigeria BIT as a case study and the increasing environmental degradation in Uganda, the blog has recommended that the Ugandan Model BIT be reviewed and amended to safeguard the environment.critiqued the Ugandan Model BIT for lacking provisions on the conservation and protection of the environment in FDI. Using the Morocco-Nigeria BIT as a case study and the increasing environmental degradation in Uganda, the blog has recommended that the Ugandan Model BIT be reviewed and amended to safeguard the environment. Further, it critiques the Ugandan Model BIT for lacking provisions on the conservation and protection of the environment in FDI. Using the Morocco-Nigeria BIT as a case study and the increasing environmental degradation in Uganda, the blog has recommended that the Ugandan Model BIT be reviewed and amended to safeguard the environment.

This post ultimately urges for a nuanced approach to China’s involvement in Africa, turning the “black-and-white” critiques into catalysts for change. Endemic and systemic issues associated with Chinese SOEs may exist, which may be partly attributed to their lack of know-how in overseas operations as well as to cultural differences. Identifying those issues allows for a maximisation of benefits for both the Chinese SOE and the African counter-part. To achieve that, further joint efforts should be engaged by African countries, China and Chinese SOEs.

We are inviting applications for a trade and development expert to work with us remotely to help collate and present this information, both in written form and online. The expert should have strong experience of working with data and information in the past, especially from trade portals and using HS codes – so that they can hit the ground running.

While international trade has undergone significant structural changes recently, particularly with the proliferation of new generation of free trade agreements (FTAs), the debate on the consequences of IIAs for sustainable development continues to widen and intensify. In effect, while there has been fundamental changes in the international investment landscape in terms of players (now comprising state-owned enterprises and sovereign wealth funds) and FDI direction (with emerging economies now being, not only recipients, but increasingly home states), governments are also now adopting industrial policies and development strategies that contrast with their erstwhile hands-off approach to economic development.

Attracting foreign investment while holding transnational corporations to account for any human rights transgressions is by no means an easy feat. It will require that a careful balance be struck between the interests of the host State and its people, and that of private actors expecting good risk-return ratios in pursuit of the bottom line. Although international mechanisms such as the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have long endorsed accountability for transnational corporations, a zero draft international convention to regulate this issue has only recently been developed.

Reforming domestic law is critical to ensuring countries capture the benefits of their natural resources wealth. In addition, it is increasingly being recognized in investment treaty reform processes as well as in investor-state dispute settlement proceedings that investor compliance with domestic law is a prerequisite to entertaining investor claims against states.