The contention of this article is that there is a need to debunk the myth that the diversity of Africa's inherited legal systems means that the continent has little to contribute to the global legal dialogue. For Africa to make an effective contribution to global legal dialogue, there is a need for serious intra-African legal dialogue. The article focuses on sub-Saharan countries and provides an overview of the numerous legal traditions that were imposed on them at independence. It then looks at the global legal dialogue within which the global south is marginalized. Thereafter, the article discusses the ways in which an intra-African trans-systemic dialogue can be promoted. The main argument of the article is that such a dialogue is likely to provide the critical understanding necessary to pave the way for closer collaboration between African countries in their efforts to develop legal values, principles and institutions that are better suited to addressing the continent's complex and multifaceted problems.

The rule of law embodies two basic metaphors: the tool and the causeway. Under the tool metaphor, the rule of law is applied more as an instrument of power, while in the causeway metaphor, the law emphasizes a form of relationship between state and society where “ground rules” are established, not just for electoral politics but for the daily transactions and commercial necessities of individuals. The choice between these two metaphors has always been crucial for the legal and political development of democratic states. This article argues that in many African states, the rule of law is presently used as a tool, and contends that if this superficial perception is discarded, in favour of concentrating instead on the more expansive causeway metaphor, the continent will stand the chance of building more modern democratic states that can compare favourably with other consolidated democracies across the globe.

The Geneva Conventions have achieved universal ratification, and Additional Protocols I and II are binding on all African states except Eritrea and Somalia; however, their observance in African conflicts is flawed and inconsistent. From deliberate attacks on civilian populations to abduction and hostage-taking, humanitarian rules are openly flouted. Through an extensive assessment of the domestic measures required to implement the Geneva Conventions and Protocols in Africa, this article identifies the current level of implementation, existing gaps and possible non-legal factors that impact respect for the instruments in African conflicts. Violations are often associated with historical, political, religious and social factors that tainted the instruments’ lofty provisions and bequeathed a legacy that challenges the obligation to respect. Additionally, continuous political and religious struggles and the search for identity and relevance have displaced the ideals of the instruments’ humanitarian provisions. Reversing this trend requires an approach that appeals to and engages the continent beyond the traditional argument of obligation to respect.

Multinational oil companies adopted corporate social responsibility as a means of addressing the challenges of their relationship with the Niger Delta communities, which had been turbulent for several decades as a result of the ecological devastation of the Niger Delta region. This article analyses the challenges of implementing corporate social responsibility in the Niger Delta, from the inception of the Nigerian oil industry to the present day. Using the experiences of multinational oil companies in the Niger Delta as a case study, the article explores the extent to which multinational oil companies operating in developing countries are increasingly assuming roles that are not traditional corporate roles, to compensate for the bad governance and poor regulatory standards in these countries. The article also provides recommendations for what the Nigerian government can do to develop corporate social responsibility and make it more effective.

On the 70th anniversary of the UN Refugee Convention, this article examines the concept of solidarity and explains its relevance today, through the lens of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). While stressing the potential as well as the challenges for thorough implementation of the solidarity mechanisms established by the GCR, the article argues that regional organizations may contribute to meeting the GCR objectives. This is particularly urgent for regions that are most affected by migratory flows. In proposing new ways of approaching the concept of solidarity, the article suggests that the African Union strengthen mechanisms other than the physical sharing of refugees, including pooling resources to support states experiencing large influxes of refugees. In addition to a system of financial support for refugee protection, the article also recommends that the European Union ensures safe channels for arrivals and a more robust resettlement programme, to help realize the GCR objectives.

This article examines the Kenyan legal and policy framework as well as jurisprudence on the principle of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) occasioned by the decision of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission) in Centre for Minority Rights Development (Kenya) and Minority Rights Group (on behalf of Endorois Welfare Council) v Republic of Kenya (Endorois) and the judgment of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court) in the case of African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights v Republic of Kenya (Ogiek). The main objective of this article is to examine the development and level of operationalization of the principle of FPIC in Kenyan domestic law and policy using the Endorois and Ogiek standard. It examines how the Kenyan domestic legal system has responded to these regional and international developments on FPIC and its operationalization.

At the end of apartheid, the South African government adopted laws regulating civil society that are widely seen as “good” laws: laws designed to encourage and facilitate a thriving civil society sector. In 2019 the Ethiopian government repealed the repressive, decade-old Charities and Societies Proclamation and replaced it with a much more open and permissive regulatory system, also aimed at facilitating a thriving civil society sector. This article compares South Africa's post-apartheid civil society organization (CSO) laws with Ethiopia's 2019 law, to examine the different and overlapping ways in which these regimes attempt to advance the interests of CSOs against an historical background of state oppression. In doing so, it examines what “good” regulation of CSOs constitutes in practice and finds that there are significant limits to the effectiveness of regulatory change in addressing the many, complex problems CSOs face, especially in the wake of political and legal oppression.

The 2016 amendments to the Constitution of Zambia 1991 have transformed Zambia's constitutional order in many respects. Among other transformative provisions, the Constitution now requires everyone seeking elective public office to have, as a minimum qualification, a grade twelve certificate or its equivalent. This article examines the rationale for this requirement, as judicially interpreted, through the lens of the right to run for election. The article's core argument is twofold. First, that the requirement is an unwarranted restriction on the right to run for election and cannot be justified when considered in its relevant context. Secondly, that the Constitutional Court of Zambia's recent interpretation of the requirement further limits the right to run for election and in turn narrows the field of candidates from which voters may choose, potentially depriving the country of resourceful political leadership. The article concludes with a call for reform.

Traditional knowledge forms the fabric of indigenous communities’ social and economic life. Its attempted protection through intellectual property law has been dismal. There is now wide consensus that sui generis regimes should be employed for this purpose, and that customary laws are conceivable as an integral part of such protection. This article finds that the expressed legislative intent to protect traditional knowledge through customary law in Kenya is ill-fated. Sustained inclusive subordination of the latter will obstruct any meaningful efforts to protect the former. This finding is reached by an examination of the historical application of African customary law in personal law regimes that have it as the defining legal regimen. This history is one of subtle subordination, and such subtlety remains embedded even in Kenya's law on traditional knowledge. The unpleasant effects of this phenomenon as observed in personal law regimes are likely to recur for traditional knowledge.

To safeguard marriage, the Law of Marriage Act of Mainland Tanzania, established marriage conciliation boards (MCBs) to reconcile disputing spouses. Divorce cases are referred to MCBs before they are filed in court. The divorce rate in Mainland Tanzania is increasing and case law indicates that some parties are by-passing MCBs without good cause. The authors were motivated to study the causes of this trend. Data were collected in Morogoro and Kilimanjaro regions through documentary review and in-depth interviews. They identified six factors limiting parties’ access to MCBs: set-up of the boards; MCBs’ regulatory framework; jurisdiction; costs; choice of forum; and inadequate provisions governing the process followed by MCBs. The study concluded that the government attaches minimal significance to MCBs and recommends that the government should intervene, including by reforming the law governing MCBs.

This article examines the framework of Nigeria's local content laws and policy, and the implications for sustainable development. The legislation is geared towards safeguarding local productivity and aiding the progressive aspirations of Nigeria's citizens. While commendable in principle, there have been questions about policy articulation, implementation and enforcement mechanisms, especially with regard to the Sustainable Development Goals. The article examines the local content legislation in Nigeria, and how policies have shaped the community-corporate nexus. This exposes the challenges facing extractive resource governance in a jurisdiction such as Nigeria and the discourses that have permeated legal scholarship on the practical deference to local content by non-state actors. It considers that well designed and implemented local content requirements are catalysts for structural development. To achieve sustainable development of its extractive sector, Nigeria requires state-led determination to stimulate economic growth and development. The article argues for continuous consultation as a bedrock for meaningful engagement.

Public interest issues have the potential to play a significant role in the evaluation of mergers and acquisitions in Africa's regional competition laws. A case in point is the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA): its regional competition authorities have jurisdiction to evaluate transactions within the Common Market. To that end, COMESA's regional competition law enumerates specific public interest factors regarding mergers and acquisitions. Further, COMESA's regional competition law permits the consideration of additional factors under the rubric of public interest, without specifying what these factors are. On this basis, COMESA's regional competition authorities have gradually created precedents on incorporating public interest considerations. This illustrates the point that purist positions towards competition law do not serve Africa's socio-economic development goals. Therefore, the challenge facing COMESA's regional competition authorities is the application of the public interest in a manner that remains faithful to the economic doctrine that underpins competition law.

Access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy is a pre-condition for sustainable economic development. This is the case in South Africa, where the workforce and entrenched fossil fuel industry remain sceptical about a transition to renewable energy. This article explores the complexity of energy regulation in countries with a deep-seated economic dependency on fossil fuels. South Africa presents a good case study of the challenge of balancing the environmental, social and economic imperatives of energy. It unpacks the drivers behind directed regulation towards renewable electricity. A painful, but necessary, “just transition” to a low-carbon economy requires laws to phase-out fossil fuels, without exposing public funds to private profit seekers. The South African experience of renewable electricity demonstrates the challenges of regulatory uncertainty. Careful legal reforms are necessary to rid existing electricity laws of their inertia and achieve a low-carbon economy while ensuring access to affordable, reliable and environmentally sustainable energy.

In protecting the marine environment from vessel-source oil pollution, compensation for victims of damage is of great importance. International conventions regarding compensation for such damage have been adopted under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization. This article analyses the extent to which South Africa has implemented the provisions of these international conventions into its domestic laws and identifies issues that remain in the South African legal system. The article reveals that, although South Africa has improved its legal system for compensation for damage from vessel-source oil pollution, claimants in respect of damage from large vessel-source persistent oil pollution and vessel-source bunker oil pollution are still not adequately compensated. This article finds that acceding to the 1996 Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims, the 2001 Bunker Convention and the 2003 Supplementary Fund Protocol would be of great interest and benefit to South Africa.

The Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AEAfCFTA) is a revolutionary treaty of the African Union (AU) which creates an African single market to guarantee the free movement of persons, capital, goods and services. The AEAfCFTA is geared towards enabling seamless trade among African countries. The single market relies heavily on the processing of the personal data of persons resident within and outside the AU, thereby necessitating an effective data protection regime. However, the data protection regime across Africa is fragmented, with each country either having a distinct data protection framework or none at all. This lack of a uniform continental framework threatens to clog the wheels of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), because by demanding compliance with the various data protection laws across Africa, free trade will be inhibited, the very problem the AEAfCFTA seeks to remediate. These concerns are considered and applicable solutions are proposed to ensure the successful implementation of the AfCFTA.

It has been over a decade since the Employees’ Compensation Act (ECA) came into force, introducing, for the first time under Nigeria's employees’ compensation scheme, mental stress as a basis for compensation. However, legal literature on salient aspects of Nigerian employees’ compensation remains scant. This article seeks to bridge this gap and provide a source of legal scholarship to aid the adjudication of mental stress claims in Nigeria. The article discusses when and how work-related mental stress is compensable within the context of the ECA. It finds that, notwithstanding the subjective nature of mental stress and the possibility of feigning mental injury, the ECA establishes broad bases for compensating mental stress, increasing the risk that employees may manipulate the system and obtain benefits even when mental stress is not work-related. The article therefore articulates criteria to defeat fraudulent claims and ensure that only legitimate mental stress claims are compensated.

The United Republic of Tanzania, also called Tanzania, is a country composed of Mainland Tanzania and the islands of Zanzibar. Tanzania's domestic laws promote sustainable development of the marine environment; however, since the beginning of the 21st century, the country has been importing large quantities of oil, resulting in an increased risk of vessel-source oil pollution damage. Through a comparative analysis, this article examines the laws addressing this issue in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, the progress that has been made in the legal environment and the challenges that remain, and it discusses possible solutions and improvements. The article reveals that weak implementation of domestic laws for marine environment conservation, a lack of harmonization between domestic laws regarding this issue, and weak domestication of relevant ratified international conventions are among the challenges currently hindering the sustainability of Tanzania's marine environment.

A key novelty of the unitary system of personal property security law is the concept of security interests or rights developed to address the rather complex categorizations of security rights under the common law. With respect to the limitations of floating charges as security devices for loans under the common law, there were expectations that the unitary security interest could provide an alternative security device capable of addressing the problems faced by hitherto inhibited business borrowers. This article compares the floating charge device to the unitary security interest in some critical areas to ascertain whether the latter ameliorates the difficulties associated with floating charges or whether it merely creates an added conceptual burden within the framework of an already convoluted secured transactions system.

This article discusses the law regulating living annuities when spouses in South Africa are divorcing. It demonstrates that South African courts have interpreted the law to prejudice non-member spouses financially. It argues that courts have failed to consider matrimonial principles when determining whether living annuities are susceptible to being shared on divorce. It argues further that adequate consideration of matrimonial principles will render it impossible for retirement fund members to prejudice their spouses financially by purchasing living annuities without the consent of such spouses, particularly when married in community of property. Disregarding matrimonial law principles may lead to deprivation of property.

The law on the availability of restitution in the context of illegal contracts is unclear. Several irreconcilable approaches have been proposed at common law in search of a solution to the question of whether or not a party to an illegal contract who has benefitted from the contract has any right to restitution. This article examines the Ghanaian judicial approach and ascertains the extent to which it sheds light on this difficult issue. It does so by examining the evolution of judicial solutions in English common law and, in that context, evaluating the approaches adopted by the Ghanaian courts.