Arbitration

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 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 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 article describes how arbitration and conciliation were treated in the old laws, and briefly outlines the new arbitration and conciliation proclamation by highlighting the unique provisions and in doing so contrasts and compares them to the old laws.

The Privinvest Group, (“Prinvinvest”), an Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates based holding company operating in the shipbuilding industry, has obtained a decision in the proceedings against it introduced by Mozambique to be stayed in favor of arbitration. The decision rendered on March 11, 2021 pertains to a jurisdictional dispute brought under Section 9 of Mozambique’s 1996 Arbitration Act relating to the competence of the arbitral tribunal.

A week ago, the Zambian Court of Appeal issued an order to halt the liquidation of the public limited company Konkola Copper Mines (“KCM”). The liquidation proceedings were attempted by State Owned Entity ZCCM Investments Holdings, a successor company to Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Limited (ZCCM Ltd). Zambia is already defending an ICSID claim in the mining sector filed this summer by Kansanshi Mining Plc.

It was reported that before the operating plant was due to operate in 2008, Egypt implemented new measures requiring the Arabian Cement Company to pay additional licensing and electricity fees. The essence of the case concerned the Egyptian authorities failure to provide gas and electricity supply to the cement plant, as well as the denial of justice by the Egyptian judiciary. Claimants consequently requested USD 236 Million in damages.

The focus of the Conference was to promote Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as a viable mechanism for dispute resolution in Africa and to discuss ways to ensure that disputes originating from, and terminating in Africa, are resolved within the continent. This will in turn boost the African economy and promote arbitration law and practice in the region.

Egypt is facing its second dispute related to its water management sector. The claimant - Gesenu SPA (where the municipality of Perugia, owns 45% of the shares) filed a request for arbitration on 30 October 2020. The Claimant invoked the 1989 Egypt-Italy Bilateral Investment Treaty, one of the 115 BITs signed by Egypt. The Egypt-Italy BIT instrument was notably invoked twice in the ASA and Waghui ICSID cases.

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.