Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
Book review
Michael McParland QC
39 Essex Chambers, London
COMMERCIAL LITIGATION IN ANGLOPHONE AFRICA: THE LAW RELATING TO CIVIL JURISDICTION, ENFORCEMENT OF FOREIGN JUDGMENTS AND INTERIM REMEDIES. Andrew J Moran QC and Anthony J Kennedy. Juta and Co (Pty) Ltd, Cape Town (2018) 833 pp, plus 8 pp Appendix and 10 pp Index. Hardback. £75.
The potential for growth in cross-border trade in Africa is much discussed by litigators, their interest fuelled by the belief that, where cross-border trade flows, commercial litigation is bound to follow. But until recently any lawyer advising a client about such matters faced considerable obstacles arising in part from the relative neglect of private international law in Africa and the lack of available literature. Therefore, this substantial work by Andrew Moran QC and Anthony Kennedy is welcome. Their book deals with some important aspects of jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, and interim remedies in 16 Anglophone countries: countries with a combined population of over 500 million people or roughly half the population of Africa.
With the addition of Liberia, this book covers the same countries analysed in Dr RF Oppong’s book “Private International Law in Commonwealth Africa” (CUP, 2013, reviewed by C Okoli (2014) 10 JPIL 317). But the approach of the two books is different. Dr Oppong’s work is divided into familiar themes found in traditional private international law texts, with an introductory summary of relevant principles followed by references to each country. It is broader in scope but does not provide the text of primary and secondary materials. In contrast, this book deals with a narrower range of issues on an individual country-by-country basis, and helpfully sets out the text of relevant statutes and court rules. It is very much a practitioner’s book, intended to assist lawyers (both from within and without those countries) who are advising clients on international disputes. The authors also hope that it will help law students and judges, especially judges considering how other Anglophone jurisdictions have disposed on an issue in question.
While all 16 countries are English speaking, they do not belong to the same legal family. Six countries—Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland (now eSwatini) and Zimbabwe— are Roman-Dutch law jurisdictions and strongly influenced by the decisions of South African jurists; though on matters of commercial law and international civil procedure an English law influence is apparent (see eg RF Oppong, “Roman-Dutch Law Meets the Common Law on Jurisdiction in International Matters (2008) 4 JPIL 311). Nine of the countries featured are common law-based jurisdictions in West and East Africa, namely Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, The Gambia, Uganda and Zambia, whose post-independence laws are based on inherited English rules. Finally,
Book review
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