Law, Global Value Chains and Upgrading in the Mining Industry: A Case Study on Zambia

The increasingly interconnected nature of global commerce has caused dramatic structural transformation. Global value chains (GVCs) are crucial to understanding the resulting consequences, including the possibilities available today for a country's economic success. Law plays a central role. In this article, we explore GVC upgrading in Africa, focusing on the mining sector in Zambia. We outline three impediments to Zambia's upgrading capacity within the copper-mining GVC and conclude with three policy suggestions that could improve Zambia's position. By shedding light on the relationship between law, development and global value chains, the article provides beneficial insight to Zambia and across Africa.

Promoting Sustainable Goals in Nigeria through the Kaleidoscope of the Social Protection Floor Initiative

Improving national social protection systems is a major task for all governments. This they can do through an effective implementation of the sustainable goals also called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The main purpose of social protection is to reduce poverty, economic shocks and vulnerability. This article examines the extent Nigeria has gone to in order to promote sustainable goals through the Social Protection Floor Initiative. The article also delves into the justiciability of socio-economic rights in Nigeria and in other jurisdictions like UK, India and South Africa which are commonwealth countries like Nigeria. It further recommends ways by which Nigeria can, through the Social Protection Floor Initiative, fulfil its obligations towards the attainment of the SDGs. A major conclusion of this article is that the Social Protection Floor Initiative is an important means for the government to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and an important aspect of this is ensuring the enforcement of socio-economic rights. Without implementing the Social Protection Floor Initiative, the Sustainable Development Goals mantra will be restricted just to TVs in Nigerian homes without any corresponding impact on the masses.

Law and Nigeria's Development: How to Strengthen the Efficacy of Law for Development in Nigeria

In today's world, the role of law transcends the maintenance of social order and administration of justice. Law has a crucial role to play in the developmental processes of states. Nigeria, a country now reputed to be the poverty capital of the world, is in dire need of development. Law can aid Nigeria's quest towards development. This study addresses the question what is development and makes an attempt to offer a holistic notion of the concept. In appraising the relevance of law in Nigeria's developmental process, the study examined instances where the law was employed to enable development, either through the facilitation of indices of development or through the inhibition of impediments to development. Additionally, the study interrogated the nexus between the law and development policy in Nigeria, and appraised the role of law in Nigeria's development process. Prescriptively, the study suggested ways in which the relevance of law in Nigeria's development process can be supplemented, namely prioritisation of the development question in law-making, execution and interpretation; promoting the realisation of socio-economic rights; and the mainstreaming of customary law as an integral part of the law and development discourse.

Export Credit Agencies, International Investment Law and the Spectre of Unsustainable Developing Countries' Debts

This article argues that the activities of Export Credit Agencies (ECAs), which provide political risk insurance to cover exports and foreign direct investments (FDIs), may be undermining the goals of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). ISDS is supposed to limit investment disputes so that they are between the investor and host-state of the investment (investor-state disputes). However, since ECAs are quasi-governmental organisations that support FDIs, they can effectively elevate such investment disputes so that they are between the host-state and home-state of the investor (state-to-state disputes). This has implications for the necessity defence in international investment disputes, which is likely to feature in cases triggered by governmental measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, the article argues that the activities of ECAs often precipitate unsustainable debt accumulation in developing countries. And these situations are becoming increasingly combustible because ECAs have escalated their activities to season investment programmes with foreign and geopolitical influence. This may worsen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. The article concludes that increased transparency and a sustainability element in the activities of ECAs are essential to both expose these risks more broadly and to create a space under the canopy of international economic law for more sustainable growth from the understory of developing nations.

Regulation of Natural Resources Located in Indigenous Communities Territory under the Principles of Consultation and Free, Prior-Informed Consent: Perspectives in Selected Countries

Natural resources have long been said to be under the sovereign ownership of the states in whose borders they are found. Sovereignty grants such a state not only the ownership but also the power to regulate their access and use. States’ inability to convert the resources into tangible socio-economic development has witnessed massive contractual agreements with multinational companies to harness the same. Multinational companies and state contractual arrangements seem to have ignored other potential stakeholders like communities dependent on natural resources for their survival. Consequently, communities such as those of indigenous peoples who depend on available natural resources like rivers, lakes, forests and other ecological resources are victimised in the state-multinational contractual arrangements and implementation. Internationally, principles such as consultation and free and prior-informed consent seem to regulate access and use of resources located in indigenous communities. This article shows how such principles guarantee the indigenous communities their existence in cases of large-scale development in their territory.

Analysing the Effectiveness of the Nigerian Law and Policy in Promoting Renewable Energy and Expanding Access to Electricity

Access to electricity is a major challenge in Nigeria with adverse effects on residents and businesses. To improve the poor state of electricity, the government introduced several policies to enhance the use of renewable energy in addition to existing conventional energy resources. However, the use of renewable energy has been relatively low in Nigeria. This can be attributed to several factors such as inconsistency in renewable energy targets, non-implementation of policies and lack of political will. In order to address this, the use of incentives as in the case of Texas is proposed for Nigeria.

The Troubling Shortcomings of International Asset Freezes: The Hunt for Gaddafi's Lost Billions

Although international asset recovery is one of the key anti-corruption commitments under the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption, a huge gap remains between commitments and implementation. The shortcomings of international asset freezes in the case of Libya, with billions of dollars unaccounted for, confirm this statement. In this article, I identify the major obstacles for recovering stolen assets in the case of Libya and I argue that the international community needs to enhance asset recovery and mutual legal assistance, as well as to explore bold ideas, such as the reversal of the burden of proof as to the illicit origin of the assets.

Discrimination on the Ground of Age in Uganda: Analysing Madrama Izama v. Attorney General (Constitutional Appeal No.01 of 2016) [2019] UGSC 1 (14 February 2019)

Article 21(2) of the Ugandan constitution provides that ‘a person shall not be discriminated against on the ground of sex, race, colour, ethnic origin, tribe, birth, creed or religion, social or economic standing, political opinion or disability’. Article 21(3) defines discrimination to mean ‘to give different treatment to different persons attributable only or mainly to their respective descriptions by sex, race, colour, ethnic origin, tribe, birth, creed or religion, social or economic standing, political opinion or disability’. Age is not one of the grounds mentioned in Article 21 against which a person may not be discriminated against. In Madrama Izama v. Attorney General the Ugandan Supreme Court dealt with the issue of whether, notwithstanding the fact that age is not mentioned under Article 21, a person could argue that he has a right not to be discriminated against on the basis of age. The majority judgment answered that question in the negative whereas the minority judgments came to the opposite conclusion. In this article, the author highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the majority and minority judgments.