Building up commercial dispute resolution in Africa: commercial arbitration and alternative dispute resolution are gaining ground in African countries, helping to improve the investment and business climate.

• Date: 01 October 2006
• Author: Bourque, Jean-Francois
• Published date: 01 October 2006
• Author: Bourque, Jean-Francois

Over 20 African countries have set up arbitration and mediation centres since 1995, usually under a national chamber of commerce. They have flourished in part as alternatives to overburdened courts. The challenge now is to strengthen these new services.

As a follow-up to the 2nd ITC Symposium on the Management of Dispute Resolution Centres (Chamonix, France, May 2006), African arbitration institutions met in southern and western Africa. They looked at how to attract companies, both national...