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The performance of international courts has traditionally been
judged against criteria of compliance and effectiveness. Whilst
these are clearly desirable objectives for litigants before
Africa's international courts, this book shows that we must look
beyond these criteria to fully appreciate the impact of these
courts. This book shows how litigants use their participation in
international litigation to achieve other objectives: to amplify
political disputes with their governments, to build their movement,
to educate the public about their cause, and to challenge the
status quo. Chapters in this collection show how these courts act
as coordination points for opposition political parties to name and
shame dominant parties for violation of their organizational
rights. Others demonstrate how Africa's international courts serve
as transitional justice mechanisms in which truth telling about
ongoing conflict and authoritarian governance receives significant
attention. This attention serves as a platform to galvanize
resistance against continued authoritarian rule, especially from
outside the conflict countries. Ultimately, the book shows that
these courts must be judged against new and broader criteria, and
understood as increasingly important venues for waging political,
social, environmental, and legal struggles.
African regional trade integration has grown exponentially in the
last decade. This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the
legal framework within which it is being pursued. It will fill a
huge knowledge gap and serve as an invaluable teaching and research
tool for policy makers in the public and private sectors, teachers,
researchers and students of African trade and beyond. The author
argues that African Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) are best
understood as flexible legal regimes particularly given their
commitment to variable geometry and multiple memberships. He
analyzes the progress made toward trade liberalization in each
region, how the RTAs are financed, their trade remedy and judicial
regimes, and how well they measure up to Article XXIV of GATT. The
book also covers monetary unions as well as intra-African regional
integration, and examines free trade agreements with non-African
regions including the Economic Partnership Agreements with the
European Union.
African regional trade integration has grown exponentially in the
last decade. This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the
legal framework within which it is being pursued. It will fill a
huge knowledge gap and serve as an invaluable teaching and research
tool for policy makers in the public and private sectors, teachers,
researchers and students of African trade and beyond. The author
argues that African Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) are best
understood as flexible legal regimes particularly given their
commitment to variable geometry and multiple memberships. He
analyzes the progress made toward trade liberalization in each
region, how the RTAs are financed, their trade remedy and judicial
regimes, and how well they measure up to Article XXIV of GATT. The
book also covers monetary unions as well as intra-African regional
integration, and examines free trade agreements with non-African
regions including the Economic Partnership Agreements with the
European Union.
Recent wars and conflicts, the 'blood diamond' wars in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, as well as asset freezing and blocking in the so
called war against terrorism have more than ever before raised
questions about the status of private property and contract rights
after the outbreak of war. Do invading and occupying powers have
the right to destroy and confiscate private property and ignore
contract rights? Are residents of a war-torn countries and foreign
investors alike protected by international laws that uphold
commercial freedom? Who, and on what legal authority, decides cases
over contested resources during or after war? As globalization and
armed conflicts continue to grow and co-exist, these questions are
increasingly in the international spotlight.
War, Commerce, and International Law authoritatively explores these
questions in the context of the relationship between war and
commerce, on one hand, and international law, on the other. This
book also places these questions in a historical context. Professor
Gathii argues that there are continuities and discontinuities in
the ways in which these rules were applied in colonial acquisitions
of territory and in the protection of the rights of bond holders in
the period before the twentieth century, and the manner in which
private property and contract rights are being treated under
occupation and during wartime in the contemporary period.
This book also offers an original and authoritative framework for
appreciating relations between powerful and less powerful States
and entities and between public and private power, as well as
between peoples from vastly different cultural and racial
backgrounds, in the context of war and commerce. It presents
authoritative comparisons and contrasts between the protection of
rights of foreign and domestic investors under international law in
the context of war. In so doing, it debunks the story that commerce
has prevailed over wartime deprivations and destructions of private
property and contract rights. It shows how wartime effects on
private property are a constitutive component of war rather than an
aberration of it. Professor Gathii demonstrates that while
international legal prohibitions against destruction and
confiscation of private property during wartime are important, they
have often been disregarded or sacrificed at the alter of claims of
liberty and freedom historically as well as in the contemporary
period.
Most importantly, War, Commerce, and International Law shows that
although the doctrines and rules of international law relating to
war and commerce guarantee fairness between all states, their
application, interpretation, and adjudication in a variety of
contexts nevertheless simultaneously carry forward within them the
legacy of imperialism and colonial conquest. However, while
international law carries within it this legacy, its guarantees of
the equality of all states and of the human rights of all
individuals, continue to offer hope for poor and weak states and
individuals everywhere.
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