Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

The issue of African contributions to the development of international investment law is one that has been almost completely neglected by international legal scholarship, as very few examples of such contributions - if any - can be found in the investment treaty experience of African countries since the decolonisation of the continent. This paper is aimed at drawing attention to the adequacy of current international investment law standards, practices and rules in contemporary Western and Southern African Bilateral Investment Treaties ('BITs'), that are designed to tackle issues arising from the interaction between developing host states and investors coming from both developed and developing countries. To do so, the paper examines two recent framework agreements (the COMESA Common Investment Agreement and the SADC Protocol on Finance and Investment) and two examples of African bilateral investment agreements, namely the SADC Model BIT and the 2013 Benin-Canada BIT. The overall aim of the assessment is to verify whether these constitute a shifi from the traditional African protectionist approach of the regulation offoreign direct investment towards the opening of Southern and Western Africa to the inflow of foreign capital, and how the two examined agreements address the issue. Finally, the paper analyses such examples from the perspective of Southern African and Western African approaches and standpoints on the future development of international investment law and policy.

Accessibility Requirements

1

Download

Share

COinS