Stand-Alone Posts

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.

This is an Interview by Our Founding Editor and Co-Convener, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, on Channels TV, Nigeria. The interview was conducted on the heels of the 2022 IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings and the African Sovereign Debt Justice Network's Statement.

Taxing the digital economy has been on the international tax agenda for almost 30 years, revolving about how to tax an industry increasingly based on intangibles, scale effect, and market reach without a physical presence. But following Crawford and Joler’s concept of extractivism (2020; 2021), the digital economy is not only about BATX or GAFAM, but also about material resources, human labor, and data. The article analyses those long-forgotten elements of the Digital Economy’s true value chain, and, as the most recent two-pillar-based reform of the Inclusive Framework does actively exclude them, how those elements could be considered in the reform process.

On the 22nd day of May 2021, AfronomicsLaw Academic Forum held a Guest Lecture titled 'Trade Facilitation: The Key to a Borderless Africa'. The esteemed speakers were Dr Tsotang Tsietsi and Mr Craig Merito, who addressed the role of trade facilitation as a mechanism to enhance intra-African trade. Dr Tsietsi, the first speaker, is a Senior Lecturer at the National University of Lesotho. She holds an LLM from the University of Cambridge and a PhD from the University of Cape Town. Mr. Craig Merito is an international trade expert and consultant with over 25 years of experience. This piece will reflect on the issues raised by Dr Tsietsi before proceeding to those encompassed by Mr. Merito.

In the globalised world that we inhabit, replete with its complex private transnational institutions and multinational corporations, energy law is often far from “national”. That is to say, hard legal problems arising in relation to energy issues within a particular country will often have a remarkably international character that can substantially transcend the immediate jurisdictional confines of the country in question.

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.

The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) is seeking a Legal or Policy Researcher and a Senior Legal Researcher to work on our Land, Agriculture & Food Systems portfolio of projects.

On the occasion of their 2022 Spring Meetings, the African Sovereign Debt Justice Network (AfSDJN); the Pan-African Lawyers Union, (PALU); the African Forum for Debt and Development (Afrodad); NAWI Afrifem Macroeconomics; the Jesuit Justice Ecology Network Africa, (JENA); the Okoa Uchumi Campaign; and BudgiT call upon the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to address their unjust governance structures that have roots in the historical subjugation of African countries. African countries did not take part in designing the current international financial architecture.

The international adjudication of investor-state disputes is at a crossroads. Since 2017, negotiations have been underway at UNCITRAL for the reform of the current system of dispute settlement, what is typically called ISDS. Different visions of the reformed version of ISDS have emerged. At one end of the reform pendulum is systemic reform, at the other end there is the option of incremental reform, while in the middle there is an option of a combination between incremental reform and systemic reform. Finally, there is an option to move beyond reform and dismantle ISDS.

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.