Trade between international commercial actors in Africa and international commercial actors in major trading blocs outside the continent (such as the European Union, United States and China) has significantly increased in recent times. The African Economic Outlook 2017 notes, inter alia, that Africa’s population is approximately one billion people and Africa’s growing population is expected to lead to a rise in consumer spending from 680 billion dollars in 2008 to 2.2 trillion dollars by 2030.
With increased international commercial transactions in Africa, the significance of private international law is more prevalent than ever. In fact, the emergence of the recent African Continental Free Trade Area (“AfCTA”) Agreement, which seeks to create free movement of persons, goods and services within the African Union, has accentuated the role of private international law in resolving potential cross-border disputes involving international commercial actors. Lawyers, judges, arbitrators and other stakeholders will have to gain advanced knowledge of the specific operation of private international law in the African context in order to anticipate and resolve these emerging cross-border commercial disputes.
This Masterclass will provide you with the essential legal know-how to invest in English-speaking Africa by equipping you with a sophisticated understanding of the specific operation of private international law in the African context. The four key issues that will be discussed in-depth in this Masterclass are: questions of jurisdiction, choice of court agreements, foreign currency obligations, and recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments.
Read the preliminary programme
The coordinator
Chukwuma Okoli is a postdoctoral researcher in private international law at the T.M.C. Asser Institute. His principal research interest is in all aspectsof private international law/conflict of laws, with a special focus on the European Union, Nigeria, and English speaking or Commonwealth Africa. He has significant publications on these subjects. He is the author of a substantial monograph on a civil and commercial aspect of European Union Private International Law and the co-author of the leading text on Nigerian Private International Law.
The speakers
Dr Pontian Okoli lectures in Private International Law and Commercial Law at the University of Stirling, Scotland, UK.
He obtained his PhD and LLM from the University of Dundee, Scotland, where his teaching included
Private International Law of Business Transactions.
He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Having worked as Barrister and Solicitor, and as In House Counsel, a great part of Pontian’s law practice and experience concern international commercial/ corporate dealings and investment risks. He has advised and represented clients based in various parts of the world with respect to litigation and arbitration. Pontian has published in several areas of law including a special focus on private international law, international commercial law, and a consideration of how access to justice concerns such areas.
Professor Elsabe Schoeman holds the degrees BLC (UP) LLB LLD (Unisa). She is the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Previously, she was a Professor in the Department of Jurisprudence, College of Law, at the University of South Africa and an Associate Professor and Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
She is an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow and spends significant periods of time researching at the Institut für internationales und ausländisches Privatrecht at the University of Cologne, Germany. Her main areas of research are jurisdiction in cross-border commercial litigation and choice of law in contract, delict/tort and selected areas of family law. She has published widely in her areas of interest and has also made contributions to international legal encyclopaedias, as well as submissions to law commissions (in South Africa and New Zealand), and she regularly advises law firms on transnational litigation.
Richard Frimpong Oppong is an Associate Professor at the University of Bradford School of Law, a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Member of the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, and an Associate Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law.
He completed his PhD at the University of British Columbia, and Post-doctoral studies at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, both in Canada. He holds a Master of Laws degree from Harvard Law School, a first-class Master of Laws degree in Commercial Law from the University of Cambridge, and a first-class Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Ghana. He has taught at and worked for several academic institutions in Africa, Europe, and North America. He was a member of the Working Group of The Hague Conference on Private International Law that developed and drafted The Hague Principles on Choice of Law in International Commercial Contracts, 2015. He has published several books, book chapters, and articles including the award-wining book Private International Law in Commonwealth Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2013).
Anthony Kennedy is an Associate Member of Serle Court Chambers in London, a Retained Fee Lecturer at Somerville College, Oxford,
and a Lecturer on the Bar Training Course at BPP University Law School. Anthony’s principal research area of interest is private international law.
During the course of his research, Anthony has concentrated, from an English perspective, most recently on the law which governs an arbitration agreement, following the decision of the UK Supreme Court in Enka v Chubb. Anthony has, along with Andrew Moran QC, also published Commercial Litigation in Anglophone Africa: the law relating to civil jurisdiction, enforcement of foreign judgments and interim remedies. In this book, Anthony and Andrew have looked at 16 Anglophone African jurisdictions with a view to synthesising the relevant law for judges, practitioners and students.
Certificate and NOvA PO points
After the successful completion of this Masterclass, you will receive a professional certificate from the T.M.C. Asser Instituut. This Masterclass has been developed in cooperation with the The Hague Institute of Private International and Foreign Law (IJI) and the Eggens Institute for post academic legal education (University of Amsterdam). Dutch lawyers can obtain 10 PO points for their attendance.
Terms and conditions
Read the terms and conditions for the masterclass series.
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