Legal Protection of Foreign Direct Investment in the OHADA Area

This Book provides an analysis of the protection of Foreign Direct Investments in the OHADA area, specifically, its regulation by the Treaty of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA Treaty). It is to restore legal and judicial security within their scope that OHADA member countries have undertaken to harmonize and unify their economic sector legislation to attract foreign investment as a factor in Economic Development. Several national and international legal instruments are responsible for the protection of foreign direct investment in OHADA countries. Indeed, the volume of foreign direct investment (FDI) to developing countries increased considerably during the 1990s; As Africa is now one of the favorite destinations for Western and even African investors, it is becoming a very profitable continent for investors. However, the issue of regulating or securing foreign investment in African countries is still flawed. If we stick to the purpose of the organization prescribed in paragraph 5 of the preamble to the OHADA Treaty, which states that the purpose of the OHADA law is to "promote the growth of economic activity and encourage investment." given the definition of business law by Article 2 of that treaty, although the list of subjects is not exhaustive, investment remains absent. Thus, Foreign Investment is not regulated by the OHADA Treaty, so even investment-related activities are regulated by other subjects like corporate law, commercial law, security law. This work proposes a reflection that the OHADA Treaty should be modernized through reform including investment and many other issues to deal effectively with the issue of foreign investment given the ineffectiveness of national and subregional instruments in this area.