Arbitration In Africa

Article by Gabriel Meyer and Matthew Colman

Investment into Africa is often made against a background of perceived (if not actual) political risk. This includes the perception that the domestic courts in Africa lack the commercial focus, propriety and efficiency that investors are ordinarily used to; fears that decisions of African courts may not be enforceable in other jurisdictions; and the perception that African host states sometimes act in an unpredictable and/or arbitrary fashion (consider for example Algeria’s recent reversal of its 2005 hydrocarbons law, and Zimbabwe’s expropriation of its agricultural industry – a matter which is currently before the World Bank arbitration forum, ICSID).