Given the need for legislation to protect internally displaced persons, African Heads of State and Government adopted the Convention on the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa in Kampala in October 2009. The convention, which entered into force on 6 December 2012, is an important binding instrument on internal displacement. Article 10 of the convention requires states to prevent displacement caused by development projects, including climate-based development projects. This article examines the content of this obligation within the context of climate-based development projects.

With the growing globalization of financial markets comes the need for regulatory convergence as well as standardization of the enforcement of the regulatory environment. Aligning regulatory approaches is crucial in empowering market players to maximize the regulatory benefits provided by foreign jurisdictions and platforms. Attaining that objective necessitates an understanding of the existing regulatory setting by comparing the approaches adopted by different jurisdictions. This article seeks to understand the strategies and mechanisms adopted by two of the most strategically linked nations within the BRICS bloc, China and South Africa, regarding insider trading regulation and its enforcement. What emerges suggests that, while these jurisdictions recognize the threat that insider trading poses to the integrity of their markets, they face serious resourcing and political challenges that weaken regulatory and enforcement efforts aimed at reducing incidence of the offence.

This article focuses on the appointment of judges in Malawi. It explores the constitutional provisions governing judicial appointments and finds that the system established by Malawi's Constitution has manifest weaknesses. For example, the composition of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) is narrow and not representative of Malawian society; there are also no procedures for the JSC to follow in its operations. The article argues that the system for appointing judges has a bearing on the eventual character and integrity of the judiciary itself, hence it is important to align it with the constitution's ideals. In conclusion, the article makes recommendations for improving the system, including by broadening the JSC's composition, adopting a law to stipulate clear and transparent procedures for the JSC and also curbing presidential powers in relation to judicial appointments.

This article examines a recent decision of the Nigerian Court of Appeal that essentially pronounces that, in respect of oil spill litigation in Nigeria, statutes of limitation are inapplicable to the federal law that creates the basis for oil spill compensation claims. This decision has dire consequences for the Nigerian oil and gas industry. The article finds this decision not only bad for public policy but actually based on very faulty reasoning and contradictory of an earlier decision of the Court of Appeal that was not considered. The article concludes that, despite this decision being the most recent, lower courts in Nigeria are not bound to follow it.

Applicable statutes give Nigerian courts discretion to achieve fairness in marital property readjustment. Ironically, the courts’ approach has often been to adjudicate on the basis of formal title, resulting in a general failure to make any readjustments. This article offers two alternative explanations for this judicial behaviour: absence of a specific statutory marriage-centred definition of matrimonial property; and the courts’ failure to appreciate the implicit matrimonial property regime revealed by a perspicacious interpretation of the statutes. These factors lead the courts to exercise a title-finding jurisdiction instead of an adjustive one. This conservative approach results in the courts exercising an exclusionary prescription of property. These flaws ignore the socio-cultural underpinnings and environment of marriage that support patriarchy in Africa and generally “disable” women in relation to property rights. Sample court cases support this thesis and underscore the need for a statutory definition of matrimonial property, with marriage as its denominator.

The domestication of child-related treaties is not a straightforward process in Nigeria. Unlike treaties with another thematic focus, the majority of constituent states must give their full consent before any child-related instrument may be domesticated at the federal level and subsequently re-enacted in the domestic states. In many ways, the plural legal orders in the country and the differing perceptions of childhood make consensus difficult to achieve in terms of child rights legislation. In this regard, even though the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has been domesticated (through a contestable procedure), 11 of Nigeria's 36 constituent states have failed to re-enact the domesticating instrument. This study elaborates on this problem, and then examines some instruments that are not affected by the domestication challenges and may offer useful protection to children with regard to certain sectoral aspects, especially child labour and child trafficking.

The article examines the court judgment in Pather and Another v Financial Services Board and Others [2014] 3 All SA 208 (GP) to explore the Enforcement Committee (EC)’s jurisdiction to settle market abuse cases in South Africa.