Making a Multilateral Investment Court Beneficial for Sub-Saharan Africa?
About the Project
The Multilateral Investment Court (‘MIC’) is a newly proposed international court for resolving investor-state disputes. Investor-state disputes are disputes concerning treatment by states of investments belonging to foreign investors. For example, if a state (allegedly) expropriates an investor's investment, then the investor would bring a claim in this court against the state.
There is presently another system in place for investors to bring such claims against states. This system uses arbitration. For various reasons, some states have advocated for reforms to this current system. A reform process is now underway at UNCITRAL and it is expected to conclude in the next few years. Over 100 states are locked in negotiations, including a number of states from Sub-Saharan Africa. Various reform options have been tabled, from a cosmetically enhanced form of investor-state arbitration to more ambitious reform ideas, particularly the MIC.
Many states of Sub-Saharan Africa have, in the past, signed up to the system under which investor-state disputes are settled via arbitration. Now there is the chance to sign up to a new system. Because of the various issues that have arisen in respect of the current system of investor-state arbitration, it should be expected that there will be considerable interest among states of Sub-Saharan Africa to sign up the most far-reaching reform proposal, the MIC. Accordingly, this project asks:
How can the Multilateral Investment Court be made beneficial for the states of Sub-Saharan Africa?
This question will first be explored in the context of a workshop that will take place at the Mandela Institute, University of the Witwatersrand on 24 & 25 November 2022. The papers that are presented at this workshop will subsequently be published in journals or an edited collection.
Collaborators
Jonathan Klaaren, Wits School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand
Emmanuel Laryea, Monash Law School, Monash University
Research Outputs
Workshop
‘Making a Multilateral Investment Court Beneficial for Sub-Saharan Africa?’, to be held at the Mandela Institute, University of the Witwatersrand on 24 – 25 November 2022.
Blog Symposium on AfronomicsLaw Blog
Publication of nine blog posts (29 January 2024 – 22 February 2024), which were developed from papers that were presented at the workshop.
Blog posts:
Rimdolmsom Jonathan Kabré: Making the Multilateral Investment Court Beneficial for African Local Communities
Robert Mutembei Koome: Africa's Perception of International Courts: Lessons for Multilateral Investment Court
Takunda Gumbu: Consistently Inconsistent Awards: An African Perspective on Consistent Awards under a Multilateral Investment Court
Rafia Akram De Gama: Revolutionizing Investment Dispute Resolution in Africa: Towards a Balanced Multilateral Approach
Christoper Y. Nyinevi: Project-Affected Local Communities, Africa and the Multilateral Investment Court
Emmanuel T. Laryea: The Proposed Multilateral Investment Court: A Missing Issue of Importance to Africa
Kathleen Mpofu: Harmonising International Investment Law with International Law through the Framework of the Multilateral Investment Court
Priccilar Vengesai: Towards an Effective and Efficient Multilateral Investment Court in Sub-Saharan Africa: Combating Corruption
Marie-Louise F. Aren: The Proposed Multilateral Investment Court vis-a-vis African Investment Interests for the Settlement of International investment Disputes
Funding Source
This project is being very generously funded by VolkswagenStiftung (link to VWStiftung (volkswagenstiftung.de)) (EUR 53,800).