OHADA Law

A adesão da Guiné-Bissau à Organização para a Harmonização do Direito dos Negócios em África (=OHADA) determinou a vigência, no direito interno, das normas dos atos uniformes da organização, produzidos, como direito derivado, nos termos previstos pelo tratado constitutivo da mesma. O Ato Uniforme Relativo ao Direito Comercial Geral, de 1997 (primeira versão), assenta numa conceção de delimitação do seu âmbito essencialmente subjetiva (comerciante), admitindo a regulação das relações comerciais não abrangidas pelo Ato Uniforme ou na parte não abrangida pelo Ato Uniforme pelos direitos nacionais dos Estados Partes da organização. O direito comercial nacional tido em vista pelo Ato Uniforme, considerando a matriz histórica na base da fundação da OHADA, é de tipo francófono, oriundo, diretamente ou por influência cultural, da legislação francesa, de forte componente subjetivista quanto à delimitação do seu âmbito. Na Guiné-Bissau, porém, o Direito Comercial nacional é de matriz lusófona, sendo a delimitação do seu âmbito essencialmente objetiva (ato de comércio), o que suscita dificuldades de articulação entre conjuntos jurídicos de que partem de orientação diversas. No presente artigo ensaia-se a articulação do regime da venda comercial do direito da OHADA com o da compra e venda comercial do Código Comercial da Guiné-Bissau, sustentando-se que este não foi objeto de revogação total pelo Ato Uniforme Relativo ao Direito Comercial Geral.

The interest of this document, is to determine how firms are built and who really has the control inside those organisations. Ohada Act don't give an exhaustiver definition of control. To give a tool to tecachers, lawyers and managers we have decided to contribute to the construction of a strong definition of control starting with the Commercial Societies Uniform Act, by taking in account, tax law definition, accounting definition. We have also showed how this notion is fundamental in many areas in plus of society of law such as labor law,  tax law, competition law.

On aurait pu penser que le débat sur les défenses à exécution provisoire est désormais clos avec la jurisprudence de la CCJA dite « époux Karnib » et de ses suites. Le débat ressurgi avec de nouveaux développements avec cette décision du tribunal correctionnel de Dschang (Cameroun) qui pose 3 séries de questions : 1. la compétence du juge pénal à interpréter le droit communautaire OHADA,  2. la portée abrogatoire de l’article 336 de l’AUPSRVE et 3. la suspension possible ou non d'une mesure d’expulsion ordonnée par le juge civil.

This article examines the effectiveness of OHADA law in the administration of Investor-State Arbitration proceedings. Pursuant to the global recognition of arbitration as a predominant mechanism for settling Investor-State Disputes(ISDs) and concomitant growth in the normative and institutional frameworks regulating the conduct of investment arbitration, Member States of OHADA created the Centre of Arbitration of the Common Court for Justice and Arbitration (CCJA) and adopted the Uniform Act Organising Arbitration as the lex loci arbitri for all arbitration proceedings conducted within their national territories. Even though the rules guiding the administration of proceedings under the Uniform Act make it clear that States, as well as public corporations can be parties to arbitration proceedings, it is observed that these rules do not entirely consider the attendant procedural safeguards associated with investment arbitration. This raises significant questions regarding the extent to which they can be relied upon by tribunals while administering such proceedings. This paper begins by considering the framework for jurisdiction of OHADA tribunals over ISDs. It further discusses the challenges which make the law undependable for the administration investment arbitration proceedings. It concludes by prospecting on how the law can be revised to render it more attractive to foreign investors and propel them to submit their potential disputes against host states to OHADA arbitration.

La crise politique au Burkina Faso est l’occasion pour le pays d’éprouver la solidité de son enracinement dans la démocratie. Elle reste un événement important tant pour une Transition manifestement soucieuse d’organiser des élections législatives et présidentielles à bonne date pour un retour rapide à l’ordre constitutionnel que pour une population qui a prouvé son attachement aux valeurs exprimées et défendues en octobre 2014. Les choix qui seront opérés dans les jours et les mois à venir détermineront l’avenir de la stabilité retrouvée dans le pays d’abord sur les élections prévues le 29 novembre 2015, ensuite sur les suites judiciaires données aux évènements des 16, 17-22 septembre 2015, et enfin sur le climat sociopolitique du pays à long terme. C'est pourquoi il est utile d'appeler l'attention des parties prenantes sur les dangers portentiels d'une précipitation dans la résolution des problèmes générés pas la crise politique.
Ce document est le rapport final d'une mission de veille sur la Stabilisation politique au Burkina-Faso initée pas l'Observatoire International de l'OHADA (du 25 septembre au 13 octobre 2015)

Until recently, doing business in developing countries, and in Sub-Saharan Africa in particular, was associated with high risk. Although each investment decision is associated with some risk, there are always obligations incumbent on host States in that regard. However, when domestic law is too obsolete to match the requirements of an evolving investment and commercial environment which it is supposed to regulate, and when its effects are unpredictable, one of the fundamental conditions for attracting investment goes missing. This eventually underscores the need for a legal reform. The phenomenon of ‘globalisation’ on the one hand, and the need for (developing) countries to integrate their economies into the global market, on the other hand, considerably accentuated the postulate of development through law.

Against this background, some African countries, at the dawn of the 1990s, felt a need to ‘modernise’ their legal systems for the major part inherited from colonialism. In this vein, they entrusted a supranational organ, the OHADA, to perform that legal reform. This paper is an attempt to test the OHADA against the discourse of law as a development engine. Furthermore, this is an assessment of the extent to which OHADA, as a legal tool, could be useful in serving the purpose of regional integration and economic growth in Africa.

L'adhésion de Guinée-Bissau à l'Organisation pour l’Harmonisation en Afrique du Droit des Affaires (=OHADA) a déterminé, internement, l’application des règles des actes uniformes de l'organisation produites en tant que législation secondaire, conformément aux termes du traité l'instituant. L'Acte Uniforme Portant sur le Droit Commercial Général, de 1997 (première version), est basée sur une conception de délimitation de son champ d’application essentiellement subjective (commerçant), en supposant que la réglementation des relations commerciales que ne sont pas couverts par l’Acte Uniforme ou de la partie non couverte par l'Acte Uniforme est faite par les droits nationaux des États Parties de l’organisation. La loi commerciale nationale supposée par l'Acte Uniforme, compte tenu de la matrice historique à la base de la fondation de l’OHADA, est de genre francophone, résultant d’une influence, directe ou culturelle, de la législation française, á forte composante subjectiviste concernant la délimitation de son champ d'application. En Guinée-Bissau, cependant, le droit commercial national est d'origine portugaise, dont la portée est essentiellement objective (acte de commerce), ce qui soulève des difficultés quant à l'articulation entre groupes juridiques dont les orientations matricielles sont différentes. Dans cet article, on essaye d’articuler le régime de la vente commerciale du droit de l’OHADA avec celui de l'achat-vente commerciale du Code de Commerce de Guinée-Bissau, s’arguant que celle-ci n'a été totalement abrogé par L'Acte Uniforme Portant sur le Droit Commercial Général.

This article inquires into the Organisation pour l’harmonisation du droit des affaires en Afrique (OHADA)’s claims to innovation for its law reform processes and into its ambition to become a precedent for pursuing legal integration among countries elsewhere in Africa and in the world. It seeks to assess whether the OHADA regime effectively contributes to, or has the potential to contribute to, socio-economic development in member states. In making this assessment, the article revisits assumptions about the part that international and Western inspired law should play in development, institutional renovation and law reform in OHADA countries. The article argues that a shift of paradigms should occur in OHADA and international economic law from the foreign investor credo towards a more nuanced empirically informed approach to law making. Legal, policy and economic experts should concentrate more efforts on the needs, practices and realities of businesses in OHADA states, particularly ...

The existence of laws in every given society has as raison d'être the preservation of individual rights and freedoms and to encourage the peaceful coexistence between the government and the governed. The aim of this paper is to examine the protection of individual rights and freedoms under the Cameroonian legal instruments while determining how an effective protection of these rights and freedoms can contribute to a country's political, economic, and socio-cultural developments. It is against these backdrops that Cameroon with its vision of emergence by 2035 has been chosen in a bit to highlight that, among other things, an effective protection of individual rights and freedoms, which can no doubt act as a catalyst to foster the rapid realization of such a vision. To achieve this objective and to deal with the research problem, we undertook desk research in libraries, relevant documentation centers, and internet websites which enabled us to review the existing literature on the question. The findings reveal that Cameroon has a sound legal system for the preservation of individual rights and freedoms but has failed grossly at the level of operation and enforcement. With the gross violation of these legal norms, it is recommended (among other things) that there is the need to put in place effective independent enforcement mechanisms to guarantee the strict respect of existing national and international laws dealing with the protection of individual rights and freedoms so as to attain the objective of an emerging nation state.

This article inquires into the OHADA’s claims to innovation for its law reform processes and into its ambition to become a precedent for pursuing legal integration among countries elsewhere in Africa and in the world. In particular, it seeks to assess whether the OHADA regime effectively contributes to, or has the potential to contribute to, socio-economic development in member states. In making this assessment the article revisits assumptions about the part that international and Western inspired law should play in development, institutional renovation and law reform in OHADA countries. The article argues that a shift of paradigms should occur in OHADA and international economic law from the foreign investor credo toward a more nuanced empirically informed approach to law-making. Legal, policy and economic experts should concentrate more efforts on the needs, practices and realities of businesses in OHADA states, particularly local enterprises the majority of which are micro and small (MS) and are regulated by both formal and unofficial rules.  Focusing on facilitating the operation of local businesses as well as on poverty reduction rather than on making regional economic integration the dominant goal of business law reform in the OHADA can lead to commercial rules and strategies more successful at fostering sustainable development in member parties. 
Bearing this in mind, the article analyses some of the innovations ascribed to the OHADA regime with a view to investigating whether they actually contribute usefully to the operation of businesses and more generally to socio-economic development in member states. The attributes examined concern both the form and the substance of the new law. Part A looks at the alleged increased physical accessibility and logical ordering of member states’ business law rules. In order to better appreciate the impact of this claimed novelty, Part B focuses on the OHADA Acts themselves and analyses three of their fundamental characteristics, namely their supranational, transplanted and viral-like nature, the latter two qualifiers being used metaphorically. The article shows that while OHADA-promoted rules and concepts are innovative in a number of respects, their supranational, transplanted and viral qualities have either little, none, or adverse effects on the operation of local MS businesses in the OHADA region.
Some commentators contend that the adverse effects and poor effectiveness of laws  can be linked to a system’s legal origins. In particular, law and economics scholars  and other academics  have asserted that common law is a superior normative framework to civil law for law reform aimed at promoting economic development and the  “rule of law”. Part C considers this claim and argues that the debate is beside the point since it presupposes a hermetic conception of legal traditions, conceives development as being primarily dependent on foreign investment and does not rest on solid empirical data from OHADA states.

La présente réflexion expose, à partir d’une analyse économique, la perception que les opérateurs économiques du secteur informel pourraient avoir du droit OHADA. Si les mesures prises pour accompagner les acteurs du secteur formel s’avèrent suffisamment pertinentes pour soutenir ces acteurs, il y a de fortes chances qu’au sortir de la pandémie de covid-19, l’on assiste à une vague importante de régularisation juridique des activités économiques. Dans le cas contraire, il se pourrait que les acteurs du secteur informel soient confortés dans le fait qu’il ne leur est pas profitable de s’encombrer de règles plus ou moins contraignantes si en retour leur protection – aussi bien juridique, économique que sociale – ne se trouve pas améliorée.

For a long time, many African States have suffered from a slowdown in the level of foreign investments in these countries, due to the juridical insecurity. As such, there is a real need to rebuild the legal systems of those countries. In this scope, The Organization for The Harmonisation of African Business Laws (OHADA) was established by an international
treaty among many African states, especially within the French zone, signed in Port Louis, Mauritius, on October 7, 1993. OHADA’s main objective is the implementation of a modern, harmonized legal framework in the area of business law. This article seeks to broadly
present his historical background, the main focus and the methodology of OHADA’s treaty, the geographical and material scope of the treaty, main characteristics of Uniform Acts and the procedure for the adoption of them, its institutions -The Conference of Heads of State and Government, The Council of Ministers, The Permanent Secretariat, The Common Court of Justice and Arbitration and the Regional Training Center for Legal Officers (ERSUMA)- and his place among the other economical unions in Africa.

La gouvernance d’entreprise est apparue suite à l’observation de dysfonctionnements des entreprises et corrélativement aux meilleures performances de certaines organisations humaines. Les enjeux de la gouvernance d'entreprise sont donc d'améliorer la performance au sens de chacune des parties prenantes (stakeholders), tout en se conformant aux normes de mise en œuvre de ladite gouvernance dans l'entreprise.
Le droit est ainsi incontournable dans la mise en œuvre de la gouvernance d’entreprise. L’objectif de cette étude est de se questionner sur la place du droit, notamment du droit OHADA, dans la gouvernance des entreprises d’une part, et d’autre part dans la gouvernance des entreprises à capitaux publics. Elles se constituent sous la forme de sociétés anonymes et, par là même, sont soumises au droit OHADA (par le truchement des articles 1er et 916 de l’AUSCGIE). Mais il reste que pour l’application des règles OHADA, l’effectivité n’est pas toujours au rendez-vous. Or il est indéniable que les entreprises à capitaux publics doivent non seulement se conformer au droit OHADA, mais elles doivent également se mettre au diapason de la gouvernance d’entreprise introduite de façon expresse à la suite de la réforme de l’AUSCGIE si elles veulent être au rendez-vous de la performance.

OHADA Law makes provisions for director's liabilities and institutions to enforce laws in cases of violation though grossly insufficient. In spite of this, the paper holds that issues related to the liability of directors are very complicated. The relationship between the company and its directors is so intertwined and difficult to separate. Companies are artificial persons, thus its management is entrusted in the hands of directors whose activities at times clouds the minds and makes it difficult to segregate their personal liabilities from that of the company. Worrisomely, directors tend to hide behind the corporate veil in a bid to escape liabilities. It is on the strength of these uncertainties and cloud difficulties that this paper sets out to critically examine and presents a concise definition of offences that dispose directors' liabilities likewise sanctions. In connection with the above objectives, the researcher adopted an in-depth content analysis based on primary and secondary sources of data collection imperative to the study. The findings reveal that though the OHADA Law is innovative, more need to be done in succinctly establishing liabilities of directors as well as sanctions which have been left at the clemency of OHADA Member States. It is therefore recommended that more cohesive, explicit, and compelling provisions be adopted by OHADA legislators so as to put directors on their guard.

The existence of laws in every given society has as raison d’etre the preservation of individual rights and freedoms and to encourage the peaceful coexistence between the government and the governed. The aim of this paper is to examine the protection of individual rights and freedoms under the Cameroonian legal instruments while determining how an effective protection of these rights and freedoms can contribute to a country’s political, economic, and socio-cultural developments. It is against these backdrops that Cameroon with its vision of emergence by 2035 has been chosen in a bit to highlight that, among other things, an effective protection of individual rights and freedoms, which can no doubt act as a catalyst to foster the rapid realization of such a vision. To achieve this objective and to deal with the research problem, we undertook desk research in libraries, relevant documentation centers, and internet websites which enabled us to review the existing literature on the ques...