English-speaking and French-speaking African nations have just laid the framework for a cooperative effort that should lead to a single organisational structure for both OHADA and Common Law countries.

By Achille Mbog Pibasso, Douala

In a context of liberalised economies that demand more and more competitiveness to keep up with increasingly intense competition, particularly from multinational companies from the industrialised world, it would seem that French-speaking Africa and its English-speaking counterpart are on a path to a standardised legal system. In light of this, African attorneys believe that the time has come to start thinking seriously about how to breech legal borders to create a common system that integrates both OHADA and Common Law. This harmonisation process could make public administration and businesses run more efficiently.

“Yet, it is in the interest of both legal systems and business models to put an end once and for all to this fight over judicial borders.” Initiated by Centre africain pour le droit et le développement (CA2D), Cameroon’s economic metropolis, Douala, hosted the first Conference of Corporate Attorneys of OHADA, an event held from 25th to 28th June. The theme of this event was “Current affairs and challenges of legal proceedings in Africa: French-speaking and English-speaking approaches”. This was the pressing issue not only for representatives from OHADA states but also those from English-speaking Common Law regions such as Ghana and Nigeria – to lay the groundwork for cooperative effort by comparing cultural and legal practices currently in place in their respective regions. This attempt holds the possibility of facilitating the standardisation of African corporate law. The meeting was necessary, particularly for the attorneys as, “in looking down on methods foreign to our own and being eager to decapitate any collaborative thought that rears its ugly head, we in the legal community often end up stepping on our neighbours’ toes on terrain that is more or less delineated, more or less sovereign and more or less in the middle. Yet, it is in the interest of both legal systems and business models to put an end, once and for all, to this fight over judicial borders.”

Exchanging ideas

Even if they avoided setting a date for an official cease-fire in their legal “border war”, these talks, according to those who initiated them, have enabled the development of a framework for exchanging ideas and working which are but parts of a process of learning about each other, questioning the way things are done and sharing our experiences – a process that could lead to new heights. But without a doubt, legal experts agree that OHADA’s lawyers will have the steepest climb to overcome normative, institutional and managerial adjustments, not only to meet the requirements of modern economies in a liberalised and competitive environment, but also to better address the regulatory structure currently in effect within the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), the West African Monetary and Economic Union (UEMOA), as well as the Inter-African Insurance Market Conference (CIMA). Talks relative to how each legal community could face these changes in the corporate sphere made it possible to identify what is really at stake at the present time and the need for states to adapt African legislative policy to reflect a perspective that transcends national and community boundaries. Similarly, legal proceedings would need to be modified to keep up with the current context of technical and institutional restructuring within the justice system.

A single organisational approach

From this point of view, organisers think that the objectives, specifically those that are intended to create a working framework between OHADA and Common Law, have been attained. CA2D’s president, Sadjo Ousmanou, didn’t withhold his enthusiasm, affirming that “it was vital that we make lawyers and managers understand that the exercise of law to benefit companies or administrations must evolve beyond its present elementary stage to be recognised as a legitimate field that is able to be proactive and see to the accompanying of businesses and administrations, and the securing of investments. In short, the process must incite a keen awareness of the stakes that all members are urged to face in exercising their professions” he emphasised. Many legal experts agree that the standardisation of the two legal systems would be without a doubt a step in the right direction for African nations, especially when faced with liberalisation and multinational competition that require that the constraints of individualism be left behind. This is why, at the end of the meeting of OHADA attorneys, participants were in favour of a single organisational approach to African law.