The African continent has struggled to accept its LGBTIQ population and queer individuals continue to struggle in pursuit of their rights. Similar refrains justifying widespread homophobia reverberate throughout the continent. This article analyses two case studies in Africa: Uganda and South Africa. Although each country treats the question of queer rights differently, arguably the treatment of the queer on a day to day basis is not dissimilar in each country. The article considers whether there is a mechanism for realizing queer rights in Africa, by appealing to the values and cultures that exist on the continent.

The activities of oil multinational corporations (MNCs) in Nigeria, especially in the oil and gas sector, have come under focus in recent years. The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in the USA highlighted the negative or unintended consequences of the activities of MNCs. Also, oil MNCs in Nigeria have been at the centre of scandals about poor labour standards, environmental degradation and human rights violations amongst others. Furthermore, the extant state-oriented or command and control regulatory regime has been ineffective. Thus, self-regulation by oil MNCs has risen to help counter these negative consequences. This article contends that the self-regulatory regime is ineffective and advocates for reforms to remedy it.

The Nigerian Land Use Act (LUA), which governs contemporary Nigerian land law, provides that any disposition of land must have the prior consent of the appropriate authority under the LUA. However, the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria Act, which regulates the disposition of eligible bank assets, contains provisions that imply that the requisite consent under the LUA is not required for the disposition of an eligible bank asset consisting of land. This article interrogates the propriety of the provisions of the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria Act in this regard and argues that, in view of the fact that the LUA is a statute with constitutional flavour by virtue of its entrenchment in the Nigerian Constitution, the LUA's provisions supersede the provisions of any conflicting law.

Nigeria is an oil rich country, endowed with both conventional and renewable energy sources. Electricity generation in Nigeria is dominated by oil and gas. The use of renewable energy in the power sector has not been promoted, despite Nigeria's abundant renewable energy potential. Using the law to integrate renewable energy into the Nigerian power sector will promote energy security and access, a clean environment and economic development. This article argues that the benefits of renewable energy outweigh its negative environmental and social impacts, also when compared to oil and gas. It posits that creating a law for the promotion of renewable energy in the power sector will enhance the benefits of renewable energy. Therefore, there should be affirmative law to support renewable energy and provide for a framework for ensuring that other laws do not constitute barriers to the deployment of renewable energy in the power sector.

In late 2009 two Malawians, a man and a transgender woman, united in an engagement ceremony. Police charged both under Malawi's anti-sodomy provisions. The case captured the nation's attention and drew scrutiny from foreign governments and human rights organizations. Several western nations threatened to withdraw aid unless the prosecution was discontinued. Nevertheless, the defendants were convicted and sentenced. Following a visit from the UN secretary general, Malawi's president pardoned the couple, but emphasized that the “two gay boys” had offended Malawi and its people. This article examines this case (R v Soko and Kachepa) and its impact on Malawi's LGBT rights movement. Using Thomas Stoddard's “rule-shifting, culture-shifting” paradigm, it considers the efficacy of international and domestic advocacy efforts and concludes that aid conditionality is, in many ways, counter productive. Conversely, multi-dimensional domestic advocacy is a promising strategy to change the relevant law and public attitudes associated with the Malawian LGBT community.

Expropriation of private land rights involves two contradictory interests: there is a public need for land; and landholders expect security of tenure and protection of their private property rights. A satisfactory expropriation policy must strike a balance between these interests. Legislation must therefore only authorize the government to expropriate land rights for a clear and limited public purpose under the supervision of an independent body. The author argues that Ethiopia's rural land laws have defined the public purpose for the expropriation of rural land rights in different ways depending on the nature of the landholders. For peasants and pastoralists the public purpose requirement is defined vaguely and broadly, whereas for investors the concept is limited to projects implemented by government. The author argues that the protection of private property rights and security of tenure are further undermined by a legislative failure to authorize affected people to appeal to an independent body on the basis that the public purpose requirement has not been satisfied.

Property rights discourse, particularly the scope, nature, distribution, redistribution, recognition and protection of property rights, has dominated debate in African post-colonial property rights systems. In Zimbabwe, property rights law has been a contested space since the colonial era. That the property rights system is a contested arena is particularly so in view of the fact that colonial subjugation in Zimbabwe was characterized, in a very important way, by politically motivated land dispossession and, consequently, inequitable property rights distribution patterns. As a result, Zimbabwe's property rights law has always responded to mainstream, albeit fluid, political and economic undercurrents. This has meant that mainstream historical and contemporary debates have provided the context for understanding the constitutional regulation of property and land rights in Zimbabwe. This article assesses the constitutional regulation of constitutional property and land rights in Zimbabwe, and the conflicts and tension that are accommodated in the constitutional property rights framework.

This article contextualizes the debate about the implications of the investment treaty regime for regulatory autonomy. It points out that, to understand why the investment treaty regime limits sovereign powers and to be able to reconstruct a regime to make it responsive to the needs of both foreign investors and host countries, it is necessary to revisit the history of investment protection by treaty and assess the terms of investment treaties in relation to that history. The article argues that investment protection by treaty was primarily aimed at protecting the private business interests of investors from the developed world who invested abroad. This overarching historical objective influenced the terms of investment treaties. This is manifested in the terms of classical investment treaties which provide for absolute rights for foreign investors. The article calls for the reconstruction of investment treaties to make room for public interest regulation.

This article examines the problematic enforcement of the right to personal liberty in Cameroon. It offers a critical review of that right by assessing its compatibility with international standards endorsed by article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. It finds that, although a small number of provisions are not sufficiently robust to protect that right adequately, for the most part the Cameroonian provisions reflect international standards. In the light of that assessment, the article seeks to identify the impediments to the effective enforcement of the right and to recommend the most effective and feasible mechanisms for developing a robust enforcement framework for the protection and promotion of the right to personal liberty in Cameroon.

This article describes the politics related to the criminalization of torture in South Africa. It studies the differences between torture as an international crime and as a crime under international human rights law. The South African anti-torture law is analysed and critiqued against the standards and provisions set out in the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The article recommends amendments to the South African law, aimed at making the combating of torture more effective.

Feminist scholars have debated questions of gender and judging by focusing on variables such as representation, difference, diversity and legitimacy. While illuminating, most of these studies are by scholars in the global north. More research is needed to understand issues of gender and judging in the global south. This article adds to existing literature by asking whether women judges promote women's rights. Through in-depth interviews with women judges in Ghana, the article demonstrates that women judges do promote women's rights. The article presents a new method of analysis: exploring the dichotomy between direct and indirect modes of representing women's rights. Recognizing the importance of substantive representation and the contributions of female judges in promoting women's rights, it argues that female judges are not a sufficient condition for promoting women's rights. Necessary conditions include laws guaranteeing women's rights, working partnerships with women's civil society organizations and an enabling socio-cultural climate.

The regulation of the extractives sector in Zimbabwe has recently come under scrutiny due to the uncertain social, economic and political environment. Zimbabwe's mining sector was under colonial legislation for a long time and that legislation has recently been reviewed. Existing extractives sector laws do not adequately promote transparency and accountability, an issue recognized by stakeholders throughout the mining sector. The advent of the new constitution and law reform processes indicates Zimbabwe's intention to incorporate good governance, transparency and accountability provisions in the mining sector. State driven reforms have been inspired by global and local civil society initiatives. Analysis shows that, for various reasons, the government does not readily embrace such initiatives, which are important drivers of official policy and legal reforms. Zimbabwean environmental civil society groups have been exceptional in this regard.

This article is constructed around the premise that women's rights to safe abortion give rise to obligations that the state has a positive duty to implement. Using Uganda as a case study, it frames failure by a state to implement its abortion laws in ways that render the rights tangible and accessible to women as a violation of human rights. The article develops a normative human rights framework for imposing on a state the obligation to take positive steps to implement abortion laws that the state, itself, has adopted. The framework does not depend on requiring the state first to reform its substantive laws or broaden the grounds for abortion. Rather, it focuses on the implementation of existing domestic laws. The article draws its remedial juridical responses partly from conceptions of women-centred rights to procedural justice, equality and health, and partly from jurisprudence developed in recent years by United Nations treaty-monitoring bodies and the European Court of Human Rights.

Despite an array of trade reforms undertaken to integrate the country into the international community, South Africa's performance in international trade has remained dismal, primarily due to its customs procedures and documentation, coupled with resulting high transaction costs. The facilitation of trade and integration into the international community has therefore been a challenging issue for South Africa. Recently, the republic has embarked upon reforming its existing customs regimes, by enacting new legislation that will replace the prevailing Customs and Excise Act 91 of 1964. This article attempts to analyse how far these reforms will adhere to the World Trade Organization's disciplines on trade facilitation that call for harmonization and simplification of customs related rules. The author evaluates the provisions of this new legislation in order to assess whether South Africa is ready to undertake the obligations imposed by the Agreement on Trade Facilitation.

Since Nigeria's return to democratic governance in 1999, violent conflicts around identities including religion, ethnicity, indigene / settler differentiation and resource control remain a challenge to peace. Thus far, government responses lack a normative framework to motivate consistent intervention and foster peace. While Nigeria's 1999 Constitution identifies peace as a common aspiration, there is a lack of a non-adversarial institutional mechanism to address violent conflicts related to identity. Despite its limited relevance, the visible institution for conflict management is the court. This article argues for the need to establish a panel of the wise, a conflict and peace intervention mechanism, as an “essential” element of the Nigerian Constitution. It then explores key considerations regarding the proposed panel, in terms of its composition, functions and legal status to intervene in the management of violent conflicts associated with identity and fostering peace in Nigeria.

This article assesses the seller's duty of conformity in a contract of sale under the OHADA Uniform Act on General Commercial Law. It posits that conformity is not an independent legal concept and so argues that a thorough assessment cannot be made without recognizing and taking into consideration a number of issues, irrespective of the contractual stipulations agreed by the contracting parties. Arguably, the notion of conformity falls within the meaning of the subjective understanding of a “defect”. This can raise confusion and uncertainty in determining the seller's liability for non-conforming goods. Thus, from a cursory reading of the Uniform Act, the question of the seller's duty regarding the conformity of goods can conveniently be addressed from a number of different angles: the nature of the defect; local and international standards; contract law; and the principles of caveat venditor and caveat emptor. Adopting an in-depth content analysis and critical evaluation of primary and secondary data, the article concludes that a balance should be struck between these variables and, where no guidance is given in article 255 of the Uniform Act, the prevailing norm in member states should form the basis for determining the concept of conformity of goods.

This article critically examines the customary laws of inheritance in the communities of southern Nigeria. It argues that the rules are skewed against female beneficiaries, both wives and children. It also argues that courts faced with such customs should subject them to the repugnancy test contained in the Evidence Act 2004, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 and other international conventions to which Nigeria is party, as do the courts in Ghana, South Africa and Botswana.

The major objective of this article is to examine the extent to which the human rights jurisprudence of the Nigerian appellate courts has been sensitive and / or receptive to the socio-economic and political claims of Nigeria's large population of the poor and marginalized. In particular, the article considers: the extent to which Nigerian human rights jurisprudence has either facilitated or hindered the efforts of the poor to ameliorate their own poverty; the kinds of conceptual apparatuses and analyses utilized by the Nigerian courts in examining the issues brought before it that concerned the specific conditions of the poor; and the key biases that are embedded in and shape Nigeria's jurisprudential orientation. The line of cases analysed in the article indicate that the Nigerian appellate courts, as elsewhere, possess great capacity, for good or ill, to impact public policy in the field of poverty reduction.

Trade in counterfeit medicines raises serious public health concerns. However, efforts geared towards combating trade in counterfeit medicines tend to focus more on the protection of trademarks, which may not necessarily protect the public from the adverse consequences of using counterfeit medicines. This arises from differences in the meaning of “counterfeit” in the intellectual property and public health contexts. This article analyses the extent to which the anti-counterfeiting legislation and institutions in two African countries, Kenya and South Africa, are capable of combating trade in counterfeit medicines in a manner that protects both the public and brand name owners. The article examines the anti-counterfeiting legislation and institutions that ensure compliance with the standards for marketing medicines that are in place in these countries, in order to draw lessons on how they can be used to balance the protection of public health interests and trademarks.