This article assesses the African Union's planning process regarding the development of the African Human Rights Action Plan (AHRAP) against the dominant or conventional “ideal” or model of human rights action planning. It examines the extent to which the AU's process followed or departed from the conventional model, the strengths and weaknesses of the AU human rights action planning process, and the lessons scholars and policymakers have learned about more effective and more locally responsive human rights action planning. In doing so, the article sequentially addresses the following specific themes: human rights action planning as a concept and its essential elements; the key characteristics and features of the conventional “ideal” human rights action planning process; and the extent to which the AU plan conformed to or departed from this conventional process, and its import. It also teases out some key insights and lessons learnt (in terms of strengths and weaknesses) in respect of the AHRAP planning process.

How the interface of state law and indigenous market laws contributes to peacebuilding in Nigeria is an unexplored question that demands attention. First, law, human security and peace are interrelated through the cultural ideas and norms that inform human behaviour. Second, the co-existence of normative orders in Africa favours a top-down approach that inadequately acknowledges indigenous law, neglects its economic, cultural and religious influences, and thereby affects human security. Based on key informant interviews, focus group discussions and observation of markets in southern Nigeria, this article finds that although indigenous market laws are much altered, their foundational values inform market union constitutions, bye-laws and dispute resolution mechanisms. Union officials draft these laws with the assistance of Western-trained legal practitioners and apply them in close co-operation with state organs, who recognize market tribunals as quasi-judicial bodies. The article urges policy attention on the manner people adapt indigenous market laws to socio-economic changes.

The ratification of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) marked a landmark event in the quest to achieve intra-African free trade. AfCFTA is poised to represent the largest free trade area outside the World Trade Organization. Although AfCFTA aspires to liberalize intra-African trade in goods and services to foster socio-economic development, there are concerns that capacity constraints may stultify the underlying goals. AfCFTA is expected to build on the considerable successes already achieved by Africa's regional economic communities. However, it fails to clarify how the overlapping regimes will be reconciled and harmonized. Nevertheless, the agreement is laudable for its quest to facilitate intra-African trade, foster regional value chains that can facilitate integration into the global economy, and energize industrialization, competitiveness and innovation. This article examines the celebrated AfCFTA to understand its potential amid local realities and the possible implications for the multilateral trading system.

Missing court files pose a serious issue regarding access to justice for illiterate and indigent prisoners, especially if the files go missing after the prisoner has been convicted and sentenced. Malawi's High Court recently grappled with the issue of missing court files post-conviction in the course of a large resentencing process, known to the legal community as the Kafantayeni Project. The Kafantayeni Project resentenced over 150 prisoners whose mandatory death sentences for murder were deemed unconstitutional, despite the majority of them missing court files. This article outlines the state of judicial record keeping in sub-Saharan Africa, the origins of the Kafantayeni Project, the extent of the record keeping problem it uncovered, how the judiciary resolved those issues while adding to the jurisprudence on missing court files, and the future implications for Malawi and elsewhere.

Civil forfeiture is an asset forfeiture mechanism available to seize proceeds of crime. Kenya has embraced its use and provides statutory mechanisms for its implementation. The Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act is the main statute in this regard. This article examines the substantive law and procedure for civil forfeiture provided in this statute. The analysis indicates that the provisions are technical in nature and that the process is systematic. This ensures a procedurally and substantively fair process before an individual's property is seized. This approach aims to safeguard against the arbitrary deprivation of property. Nonetheless, challenges are identified that interfere with the effective implementation of the civil forfeiture regime. These problems lead to the current underutilization of the regime. Accordingly, the article identifies viable ways of addressing these shortcomings. Implementation of these suggestions could enhance the use and success of civil forfeiture in dealing with the proceeds of crime.

The taskforce appointed in 2016 to undertake a review of the legal sector in Kenya highlighted a decline in public service and pro bono work as one of the challenges facing the legal profession in the country. In its report, the taskforce made several proposals to tackle the problem, all directed at qualified lawyers. This article seeks to contribute to the deliberations anticipated from the findings of the taskforce, by suggesting instead that the problem of a declining public service ethic be addressed by targeting law students. Bringing students face to face with real clients and their needs can play an important role in broadening their horizons and shaping their beliefs about, and attitudes towards, the different possible careers they can pursue with their education. The article specifically recommends clinical legal education as a practical and comprehensive means by which students can be encouraged from early on to have an interest in pro bono and public service work.

South Africa remains confronted with challenges to the realization of the right to healthcare services, shaped by both national and global dynamics. The proliferation of exclusivity regimes in intellectual property (IP) rule-making poses a threat to affordable healthcare services. Although South Africa is not a signatory to any of these enhanced IP norms, it may still be at risk through transposition, given that the current norm-setting constitutes the future direction of rule-making. These global dynamics are compounded by overly protective measures in South Africa's patent law as well as non-IP factors, particularly the prevalent weak health infrastructure. Although South Africa's IP Policy Phase I incorporates a raft of changes to address the situation, capacity constraints could thwart effective outcomes. Consequently, beyond the current patent law reform, there should be a roadmap for how to manage global IP norm-setting as well as non-IP factors, to foster universal healthcare coverage in South Africa.

This article discusses the challenges affecting the achievement of financial inclusion for the poor and low-income earners in South Africa. The concept of financial inclusion could be defined as the provision of affordable financial products and services to all members of the society by the government and/or other relevant role-players such as financial services providers. This article identifies unemployment, poverty, financial illiteracy, over-indebtedness, high bank fees, mistrust of the banking system, lack of relevant national identity documentation and poor legislative framework for financial inclusion as some of the challenges affecting the full attainment of financial inclusion for the poor and low-income earners in South Africa. Given these flaws, the article highlights the need for the government, financial institutions and other relevant stakeholders to adopt legislative and other measures as an antidote to financial exclusion and poverty challenges affecting the poor and low-income earners in South Africa.

In recent times, clash after clash has arisen between herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria. These conflicts were linked to the effects of climate change in northern Nigeria, but have been exacerbated by other factors including ethno-religious sentiments. Herdsmen forced to migrate southwards face intense competition for arable and grazing land with the farmers in Nigeria's middle belt. This invariably leads to conflicts, often resulting in gruesome murder and carnage. Thousands have died, many more have been maimed and millions displaced because of this crisis. As a solution, the Nigerian government proposes to set up grazing reserves and rural grazing area settlements in all states of the federation. The problem with this proposal is how and where to obtain the land. This article reflects on the legal implications of the proposal and argues in favour of grazing reserves and ranching on the basis of a private freehold / leasehold tenure arrangement, not through the compulsory acquisition of land by the government.

The clamour for the reform of Nigeria's secured transactions’ law has culminated in the recent enactment of the Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act to stimulate responsible lending to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), among other objectives. This article evaluates the impact of the act, in particular how it addresses the problems associated with the common law system that made it difficult for small business entities to access loans and other credit facilities. The article further examines the implications of the autonomy the act gives to companies to continue to grant charges pursuant to the old system. The author contends that, despite the act's obvious similarity to reformed systems of personal property security laws (reform now being championed by the UN Commission on International Trade Law), expectations of it meeting its key objective of stimulating credit to MSMEs may be misconceived.

This article explores why Botswana's environmental protection regulatory framework is failing to stem environmental deterioration. Based on the observation that such deterioration persists despite the fact that there is a framework in place, the discussion draws from experience with successful environmental protection regulatory frameworks around the world. The discussion establishes that successful environmental protection regulatory frameworks incorporate numerical quality and ecological standards, a command and control approach (with context-sensitive alternatives to account for the approach's limitations), and credible enforcement mechanisms. This article measures the extent to which Botswana's environmental protection regulatory framework incorporates these elements; it identifies that the reason why the framework has failed to stem environmental deterioration is that it does not adequately incorporate these qualities and proposes how this could be addressed going forward.

In a bid to improve financial inclusion and access to affordable debt finance by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), Nigeria's Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act (STMA) was enacted on 31 May 2017 to regulate the creation, perfection and realization of security interests in movable assets. This article critically examines certain provisions of the STMA, including the potential issues that may arise due to the dual registration system now available under the act and that hitherto existing under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, as well as the implications of the STMA on traditional pledge transactions. It concludes that, while the STMA is an impressive attempt at enabling MSMEs to leverage their assets into capital for investment and expansion, it fails to procure a harmonized legal framework for secured transactions in personal property or to facilitate their effective use as collateral to improve access to credit by businesses in Nigeria.

Credit reporting is the act of gathering information about the behaviour of borrowers and making such information available whenever a decision is to be made regarding a borrower's application for new credit. Following the introduction of credit bureaux in Nigeria in 2007, in 2017 the federal legislature enacted the Credit Reporting Act, creating a legal framework for the implementation of credit reporting and codifying global best practices adhered to in the practice and administration of credit reporting. This article examines the act in the light of its objectives and attempts to determine whether the legal framework it provides is conducive to the achievement of these objectives. It also considers the factors that might militate against the effective running of a credit reporting system in Nigeria and suggests measures to deal with these challenges.

The business judgment rule is an ancient doctrine that was developed in the US. It seeks to prevent courts from reviewing directors’ decisions, on the basis that directors have the capacity and expertise to make business decisions. This article examines the desirability of applying the US business judgment rule in Nigeria. Through a comparative analysis, it argues that the peculiarities of Nigeria's corporate law and environment do not justify the application of the rule. More specifically, it contends that differences in the legal regime for derivative suits, standards of duty of care and skill, corporate law culture, and the distinct epoch in which the business judgment rule and the duty of care and skill were recognized in the US, make its application unnecessary in Nigeria. It concludes that the current statutory duty of care and skill should be retained to hold directors accountable for reckless business decisions.

Competition laws and policies play an important role in developing countries. More than 130 countries have adopted either a competition law or a similar framework of anti-monopoly laws that aims to improve social welfare. Most African countries have already started developing their competition regimes, and regional trade organizations in Africa have provided competition sections in their free trade agreements to enhance enforcement cooperation. For fledgling competition regimes in Africa, the improvement of effective public enforcement and competition law culture has become an essential driver of competition law development. In particular, Egypt has demonstrated its efforts towards the modernization of competition law and the enhancement of fair and free competition, which is an example of the development of the competition regime in a developing African country. This article discusses the development of the Egyptian competition regime from a comparative perspective and suggests proposals for its further modernization.

In a landmark decision on 17 April 2017, the Supreme Court of Nigeria held that foreigners cannot legally and validly own land in Nigeria. This decision is of significant interest for the international investing community. The decision is a curious one and deserves close scrutiny. It was based on the court's interpretation that the Land Use Act provides that all lands in Nigeria are to be held in trust by the governor of each state for the use and benefit of all Nigerians. This note posits that the Supreme Court decision was completely erroneous and that, contrary to that decision, the correct position of the law is that foreigners can lawfully and validly own land in Nigeria provided that they are not enemy aliens.

Foreign investment is a major source of the capital that Nigeria and other developing markets need to promote economic activities and drive economic development. While profit mainly drives the decision to invest abroad, such decisions are also influenced by the safety of any actual investments made. Thus, investors are interested in the laws and regulations that offer them protection against corporate insider opportunism. In Nigeria, the relationship between corporate actors is mainly regulated by the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA). This article investigates the corporate legal and regulatory protection for corporate shareholders in Nigeria and the UK. Comparing the corporate regulatory regime in the two jurisdictions, this article argues that the identified weaknesses in the Nigerian regulatory framework negatively impact the growth of foreign investment in the country. In view of these weaknesses, the article suggests a major review of CAMA and other regulatory instruments with a view to addressing the protection of small investors and “outsiders”, such as foreign investors.

In Nigeria, corporate law and practice are still evolving. Consequently, there is scant literature on some major aspects of corporate law. The focus of this study is on one such area covering dividends and other forms of corporate distribution. In addition to the lack of constructive legal literature on company dividends and other forms of corporate distribution in Nigeria, most of Nigeria's corporate participants and policymakers are still largely uninformed of the fundamental rules and principles on company dividends. Motivated by the foregoing, this research critically examines the theoretical rationale and extant legal principles on company dividends. Its main objectives are to close the gap in the literature and to provoke scholarly discourse that may further enrich policy reform measures in the area of company dividends in Nigeria.

There have been notable legislative advancements, as well as improvements in corporate governance codes, aimed at protecting stakeholder rights. However, how much protection have they really afforded stakeholders against socially irresponsible corporate behaviour? This article undertakes a comparative analysis of the legal framework underlying South Africa's stakeholder-inclusive approach and Nigeria's environmental, social and governance or sustainability corporate reporting. It identifies a misplaced philosophical background as well as policy misalignment of corporate governance codes and primary corporate law as critical factors that undermine efforts to embed responsible corporate behaviour in order to safeguard the interests of qualified and legitimate stakeholders. It recommends specific amendments to address the ideological defect and align corporate governance codes with primary corporate legislation in these two countries.