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,