Arbitration in Africa: A Practitioner's Guide

In recent years African countries have taken great strides in their response to the demand for reliable contractual and institutional forms of doing business and for high-quality dispute resolution mechanisms. Modern international arbitration has taken root, with certain countries actively embracing modern harmonized arbitral practice, and others in the process of change and development. This unprecedented volume assembles for the first time a country-by-country analysis – both practical and insightful – of how arbitration is conducted in 46 African countries, providing essential information about legislative provisions, treaty adherence, and arbitral procedure. Contributors include current and former judges, distinguished practitioners, academics, and institution-builders, all of whom are active in promoting the use of arbitration as a viable means of dispute resolution in Africa. Five sections representing the main regions of the continent, each with a substantive introductory chapter covering the major trends within that region, offer country overviews addressing issues such as the following:

• adherence to the key arbitration conventions;

• the modernity of a State’s arbitration legislation and its compatibility with the UNCITRAL Model Law;

• particular features of arbitral practice in that jurisdiction;

• access to and (where available) statistics from local and regional arbitral institutions;

• significant arbitration-related national case law; and

• enforcement of foreign arbitral awards.

A sixth section focuses on Africa-based investor-State arbitration, providing an empirical analysis of the experience and record of African States with investment treaties and investor-State arbitration. Useful tables of intra-African bilateral investment treaties, a list of ICSID proceedings involving African States, and other tabular features round out the volume. The book will be welcomed by arbitration practitioners and legal academics everywhere as the essential guiding light in what is rapidly becoming a crucially important area of international arbitration practice.