Originially from: World Arbitration and Mediation Revew (WAMR) 2005 Vol. 16, No. 6

The African Union and International Commercial Arbitration
by
Dr. Paul Kadjo∗
I. Introduction
Because law and arbitration arise in societies with different belief
systems, they have evolved differently in different contexts. International
trade and commerce are subject to conflict and disruption that can emerge
from circumstances, misunderstandings between parties, and differences
of ideology. Arbitration can address disputes that occur as a result of the
development of international investments in regions whose systems of
exchange are not normally well understood. The African Union (AU) is a
vivid example.
This article investigates the evolution of international commercial
arbitration in the AU and how it adapted to and was influenced by the
traditional value-systems regulating the legal, social, and commercial
orders of the AU. Vested with immense natural resources (representing
substantial economic and investment opportunities) and traditionally
equipped with a conflict resolution or arbitration system different from
that of the Western world, the AU is a fertile, interesting, and relevant
forum for conducting research on arbitration. It allows a comparative
inquiry into the dynamics of the African and Western arbitration systems
and the search for a convergence of the two systems to the benefit of the
world community.
Section II provides an outline of the foundations of the Western
arbitration, the characteristics of the African traditional arbitral Elder-
Parole system (ATA-EPS), and a possible reconciling of these two arbitral
systems. Section III describes the institutional framework of arbitration in
the AU, emphasizing its institutional development, the functions and
activities of the regional arbitral centers, and the hurtles to arbitration’s
institutional success in the AU. Section IV canvasses the legal
infrastructure that supports arbitration in the AU.
Section V assesses the position of the AU in the global trading
system with specific reference to the 1958 New York Arbitration
Convention, the International Center for the Settlement of Investment
Disputes (ICSID) Convention, and other international organizations.
Then, Section VI provides the policy implications for the AU commercial