Book Review Symposia

The book focuses on special and differential treatment (SDT) of developing countries in the World Trade Organisation. It is carefully researched, draws on a breadth of literature and legal analysis, and presents an original argument on for reforming the system of differentiation within the World Trade Organization (WTO). What Aniekan Ukpe calls a 'differentiated differentiation' approach seeks to resolve contentious and deadlocked debates about the rights and obligations of developing country members. It is on this original approach that the rich historical, ideational and legal analysis of the early chapters of the book builds. The proposed evidence-based and case-by-case system adds a new perspective to academic debates on differential treatment. It has real potential to contribute to ongoing debates in the WTO on reforming differentiation among its members.

The "Special and Differential Treatment Reform in the WTO" by Aniekan Ukpe offers a thorough exploration of the complexities of trade law within the World Trade Organization (WTO), with a particular emphasis on the concept and reform of Special and Differential Treatment (SDT). Ukpe's work is both timely and relevant, addressing some of the most contentious issues in the multilateral trading system. At its core, the book focuses on the critical theme of reforming SDT provisions and practices within the WTO, offering a detailed examination of the current challenges and shortcomings inherent in these provisions. Ukpe conducts a thorough review of existing reform proposals, critically analysing their effectiveness and identifying gaps that have impeded meaningful progress. A central element of his work is the introduction of a unique, rules-based approach he terms "differentiated differentiation." This method advocates for defining agreement-specific or provision-specific criteria for SDT, ensuring that eligibility is based on objective and measurable factors related to a country’s capacity to implement specific rules, rather than on broad country categorization. The book goes beyond conceptual discussion by demonstrating the practical operationalisation of the approach, using the WTO’s customs valuation agreement as a case study.

Aniekan Ukpe’s book on Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) in the WTO is written at an inflection point in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and many other international organizations – one of increasingly deepening polarization between developed and developing countries and their respective coalitions. One of the central issues in the divide has been the non-fulfilment of developmental objectives set out in respective legal frameworks by international institutions, and the inability to reform. Negotiations on redressing SDT under the WTO have now stretched over 20 years in the Doha Development Round, with no middle-ground reached.

One of the longest running debates at the World Trade Organization (WTO) is how to best account for and address the unique needs of developing countries as they become integrated into the world trading system. This has raised a broad range of questions centering around three key issues— what are the specific needs of developing countries, what flexibilities are required to help members meet their commitments, and what support can be given to build capacity where it is needed most? But underlying these considerations that helped frame individual discussions was always the bigger question of whether the approach to special and differential treatment (SDT) was sufficient to account for the diversity of the organization’s membership.

The book “Special and Differential Treatment reform in the WTO” offers a comprehensive exploration of the conceptual, legal, and practical dimensions of the Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) within the World Trade Organization (WTO). It provides critical insights into how to reform SDT to reflect an appropriate relationship between levels of development and the commitments of members.

There is quite some work that has been done on investment regulation and human rights protection in the context of Africa. One of such works is Fola Adele’s book, International Investment Law and Policy in Africa, Exploring a Human Rights Based Approach to Investment Regulation and Dispute Settlement (2018), where he discusses sustainable development and human rights protection. Most significantly, Adeleke acknowledges that the role and importance of public interest issues, sovereignty of states and other binding obligations that interfere with investment treaty norms have not been given adequate attention. This is why I welcome Dr. Dominic Npoanlari Dagbanja’s book “The Investment Treaty Regime and Public interest Regulation in Africa” with lots of admiration. This work does not only provide a wealth of resource for scholars seeking to research on such a thorny issue, but also serves as a fresh reminder of the important yet difficult conversation about the need for African states to recast future investment treaties in the light of their constitutional mandates and responsibilities.

In different epochs of our world, the idea of copyright has been thought about and debated by different scholars and philosophers. Most commonly, such debates find resonance in scholarly interlocutory about intellectual property law justificatory theories. On limited occasions, copyright scholarship ventures into studying the jurisprudence of copyright, that is the consciousness and the conscience of the discipline. In his offering, The Right to Research in Africa: Exploring the Copyright and Human Rights Interface, Oriakhogba remarkably studies copyright in the context of Human Rights. From the onset, it is refreshing that Oriakhogba takes the task of engaging copyright outside of the strict positivist and largely mercantilist strictures that often insist on thinking about copyright purely within the ambit of trade. The book’s argument is propounded in five chapters. Following the introduction, the second chapter examines the state of research in Africa, and the challenge that copyright poses to the question of access to information. The third chapter places its focus on international and regional human rights framework. The fourth chapter, which is the focus of this essay, discusses the national constitutions and frameworks for the protection of human rights to ascertain whether they support the development of the right to research. The fifth chapter, which concludes the book, summarily uses the insights from prior chapter’s to substantively respond to the question whether the right to research is justifiable in the context of Africa.

The Right to Research in Africa: Exploring the Interface between Copyright and Human Rights, a book authored by Desmond Oriakhogba, was published by Springer Nature in 2023. The book examined international and regional human rights instruments to which African countries have subscribed, as well as those relevant to the African context, and the national bills of rights and constitutions in Africa with the aim of constructing an explicit right to research in Africa.

With the recent decision by the African Heads of States to adopt the Protocol on Investment to the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area, Dr Dominic Dagbanja’s monograph on The Investment Treaty Regime and Public interest in Africa is a welcome addition to the growing list of monographs on Africa’s foreign investment law regimes. This book which is a based on Dr Dagbanja’s 2015 doctoral dissertation provides an original contribution to existing literature by focusing on the constitutionality of investment treaties. It deals with themes and issues which are critical for understanding Africa’s complex foreign investment protection and promotion laws. Although scholars have examined the linkages between constitutional law and international investment law notably using case studies from Europe and Latin America, this is the first monograph to focus on this issue from an African perspective.

In the early days of investment treaty awards, twenty or so years ago, it was obvious something was badly amiss. With virtually no legal analysis, the Metalclad tribunal found an indirect expropriation against Mexico based on the government’s refusal to authorize a landfill in a historically polluted area. A few years later, foreign asset owners busily sued Argentina for the country’s emergency measures, adopted in the face of a national economic crisis; the arbitrators were unsympathetic to the Argentine lawyers’ argument that it was ‘necessary’ for the country’s government to override the stipulated water rates in contracts with irresponsibly privatized utilities so households could afford drinking and bathing during the crisis and recovery. In CME, a case against the Czech Republic, the tribunal awarded hundreds of millions to a U.S. mogul after reasoning very erratically that the country had violated most of the cryptic investor protections in the invoked treaty. The dispute arose from Czech efforts to regulate broadcasting of cheap American re-runs on a major privatize TV station that was filling the airwaves with profitable muck. A sister tribunal in Lauder, bizarrely hearing a parallel claim by the human owner of the CME company, refused to award any compensation for the same dispute.