Stand-Alone Posts

In this collaboration between Asser Institute’s Doing Business Right project and AfronomicsLaw, we welcome contributions from scholars working on African international law, African perspectives of international/transnational law, as well as scholars working on business and human rights more generally.

This post engages with the Global Value Chain Development (GVCD) reports co-published by the World Trade Organization and the World Bank. It focuses on one central claim these reports have made about the development-related benefits of firms’ participation in GVCs, and on the policy recommendations that follow. The claim is that by inserting themselves into global value chains (GVCs) and technologically upgrading, firms can move up the value-added ladder and capture a greater share of the economic rewards, thereby also benefiting workers and their states in terms of employment, income and taxation.

Notably, in the accession process, Sierra Leone has exercised its right under Article I(3)[2] of the Convention to limit the scope of the Convention to arbitral awards made in the Territory of another Contracting State, to disputes arising out of legal relationships, whether contractual or not, which are considered commercial under the Laws of Sierra Leone and to arbitration agreements concluded and arbitral awards rendered after the date of its accession to the Convention.

This webinar was a collaboration between Afronomicslaw and the South Centre, Geneva, to mark the 25th anniversary of the South Centre. Both the South Centre and Afronomicslaw share a commitment to discuss the protection and promotion of the development interests of countries of the Global South.

Teyliom v. Benin, a new ICSID case has commenced following the appointment of its sole arbitrator on October 23, 2020. The request for arbitration in this case against Benin was filed this summer. This is the very first ICSID claim against Benin. What we know is that in 2017 Benin  faced an investment arbitration at the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (“SCC”).

On October 9, the Dutch and Nigerian subsidiaries of Italian Eni have filed a request for arbitration at ICSID. The dispute revolves around Shell and Eni’s 2011 purchase of the Oil Prospecting Licence (“OPL 245”) from the company Malabu Oil and Gas Limited (“Malabu”) for USD $1.3 Billion.

This paper engages in a critical legal analysis of Professor Ian Taylor’s article, Sixty Years Later: Africa’s Stalled Decolonization. It is not meant to be an exhaustive analysis but will provide a limited legal perspective of the article’s foundational arguments on the underlying causes of Africa’s economic underdevelopment, through a legal lens rooted in intellectual property (IP) law and international investment law (IIL).

This article aims to demonstrate that the Interocean case is a paradigmatic decision, testing the limits of the Nigerian Foreign Investment Framework. The analysis concludes with tactical considerations regarding the designation of the State as well as its National Oil Company ("NOC") in ICSID proceedings. It concludes that the Interocean case has paved the way for shareholder disputes in oil and gas to be heard in Nigerian Courts.

This blog post highlights the International Law encounter at WBNUJS for the undergraduate programme in addition to the incidental confrontations with International Law for students and my reflections of the same.

We need to think broadly, and across policy areas as: “Indeed, in general, the improved aggregate poverty situation [in South Africa] is due to the increased support coming from social grants and not from the labour market”. Social, technological and economic policy should coordinate for better outcomes. If COVID-19 has shown as anything, it is not that we are the subjects of external, uncontrollable phenomenon - but rather that we are subject to outcomes born of the deliberate decisions of policy, law and economics.