FOUBLA

A legal tool to foster economic growth in Africa

OHADA Event / New York / Thursday May 14, 2015 at 6pm / International arbitration in Africa / The OHADA model

We refer to the newsletter dated 07-05-2015

The Foundation for a Unified Business Law in Africa (“FUBLA”) is happy to report that the conference on OHADA arbitration, co-organized with the International Senior Lawyers Project (www.islp.org), and hosted by the Law Firm of Winston & Strawn LLP, on Thursday May 14, 2015 in New York City was a great success.

The public was delighted to hear that foreign investors have more than one reason to agree to an arbitration under OHADA Rules, notably because the arbitration rules under OHADA follow international best practices, favor the short duration of arbitration, and facilitate the enforcement of awards within the OHADA region, whereas OHADA’s Common Court of Justice and Arbitration possesses a power of scrutiny of the award, similar although not so comprehensive as ICC’s.

The panelists also covered the issue of conflict of interest, highlighting that African arbitrators receive less challenges for impartiality than U.S. based arbitrators, as well as the issue of interim measures, explaining that the legality of interim measures issued by arbitrators is not uniform within the OHADA region and urging potential parties to explore this in advance with local counsel.

Once again, FUBLA would like to thank the panelists for their contribution without which this event would not have been possible.

FUBLA is a US non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the laws of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa in English-speaking countries.

For more information about FUBLA and its activities, please visit: www.fubla.org.

You may also contact: mayifuila@gmail.com.