Africanization; investment law; investor-State dispute settlement reform; neo-colonialism; pan-African investement; Business and International Management; Political Science and International Relations; Economics, Econometrics and Finance (all); Law
Résumé :
[en] The current Africanization approaches mask some nuances present in current reform efforts of international investment law (IIL) and investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) in Africa. I adopt the categorization of international law scholarship in Africa developed elsewhere into two trends: contributionist (weak) and critical (strong) scholarship. For reforms in African IIL and ISDS, I relabel this trends benign Africanization representing the contributionist (weak) strand and radical Africanization representing the critical (strong) strand. I argue that African states must focus on wider economic justice engendered in the radical Africanization approach. I propose three lines of action that will implement radical Africanization: first African States, in their reforms, must focus on both extra and intra-African investment; second, the reforms must engage deeply seated substantive issues in addition to the current procedural reforms; and finally, African States must have a real reckoning and engagement with the imperial history of IIL generally and ISDS specifically.
Disciplines :
Droit européen & international
Auteur, co-auteur :
MBORI, Harrison ; University of Luxembourg > Luxembourg Centre for European Law (LCEL) > LCEL Research ; Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European, and Regulatory Procedural Law, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Co-auteurs externes :
no
Langue du document :
Anglais
Titre :
Benign and Radical Africanization in International Investment Law and Investor-State Dispute Settlement in Africa
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ibid.
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ibid, citing Adom Getachew, Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination (Princeton UP 2019) 31–32.
John Nyanje, ‘Hegemony in Investor State Dispute Settlement: How African States Need to Approach Reforms’ (AfronomicsLaw, 7 September 2020) accessed 25 July 2023. See Qumba (n 78) 97–232 (arguing that African States should not abandon ISDS because replacing it with isolated domestic or regional mechanisms does not reduce any risk associated with the investors adjudication. He argues that these alternative means are potentially biased and politically influenced. This position sounds erringly similar to the colonized view that African judiciaries are incompetent to handle ISDS cases wholly disapproved in this article).
Harrison Mbori, ‘Exit Is the Only Way Out: A Polemic Response to John Nyanje’s “Hegemony in Investor State Dispute Settlement: How African States need to Approach Reforms”’ (AfronomicsLaw, 10 September 2020) accessed 25 July 2023.
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Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah, ‘The Neo-Liberal Agenda in Investment Arbitration: Its Rise, Retreat and Impact on State Sovereignty’ in Wehua Shan, Penelope Simons and Dalvinder Singh (eds), Redefining Sovereignty in International Economic Law (Hart 2008) 199.
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ibid.
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ibid.
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United Nations Convention on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration (adopted on 10 December 2014, entered into force 18 October 2017) (Mauritius Convention on Transparency) (On 21 December 2021, the Convention had attracted nine State party ratifications since it entered into force on 18 October 2017.) accessed 25 July 2023.