Includes bibliographical references. / This dissertation aims to examine one major issue: namely, the most appropriate competition law for developing countries from the perspective of ‘looking from the inside out’.1 Reference is made particularly to Tanzania, with a close evaluation of its Fair Competition Act, 2003 and some case law, so as to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of competition policy and law within its Tanzanian context. This involves taking into consideration the inherent characteristics of the Tanzanian economy since it is necessary that Tanzania have a competition law that reflects and addresses its particular needs. So the basis of this dissertation is to analyse the efficacy of the Fair Competition Act to deal with the specific requirements of Tanzanian society; and if the result is found to be in the negative, then the dissertation goes on to suggest what type of competition law model Tanzania should develop that will best suit the country’s needs.

This dissertation discusses the evolvement of Chinese Contractual law and establishes as to whether it converges or has any similarity with any Western legal norms and standards. I will view the recent history and early sources of Chinese law as influenced by political changes and tradition; as well as the influence of international commercial transaction agreements. The formation of a contract, standard terms and modification of contracts and the dissolution and breach in Chinese contracts will be discussed and also whether parties do in fact have the freedom to enter agreements with each other without third party interference. The role played by the Judiciary when addressing the issue of contractual disputes and in particular the Interpretations and Opinions of the Supreme Peoples' Court of China on the new Chinese Contract Law will be considered, as well as whether the concept of Doctrine of Precedent as practiced in the West does in fact exist in China. My motivation for choosing this topic is based on the fact that China is (1) the second largest economy in the world and her consequential impact on world trade, (2) its economic influence in the world especially Africa, (3) the fact that China is South Africa's largest trade partner, (4) South Africa's membership of BRICS [1] , and (5), China's growing influence in the world in the creation of parallel institutions to the West, such as the New Development Bank (formerly known as the BRICS Development Bank) rivalling current Western institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Includes bibliographical references. / Ever since African states gained their respective independences, regional integration has been at the highest realm of their goals. The states have since seen it as a solution to their slow growing economies and as a means of poverty reduction.1 It has been a very slow but enormous progression on the part of Southern African countries since the establishment of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) in 1910. These states developed and are still continuing to develop promising approaches to trade negotiations in both multilateral and regional economic negotiations 2 and agreements they have with the European Union (EU) such as the Southern African Development Community Economic Partnership Agreement (SADC EPA) and South Africa with the Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) it has with the EU. SACU took it upon itself to bring into existence a common external tariff but the TDCA has proved to not take into account the concerns of the other SACU members namely Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS).3 The promotion of trade is mainly boosted by developed countries trading with developed and least developed countries extensively than it is by developing and least developed countries trading with their respective counterparts.4 This means developing and LDCs do not become part of regional integration economic groupings to promote trade. This is one of the main reasons why the agreements that these states conclude with the EU should be concluded in a way that boosts trade without encroaching on other states for such to be attained.

Includes bibliographical references. / There are more regional integration initiatives in Eastern and Southern Africa than anywhere else in Sub-Sahara Africa. These include Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East Africa Community (EAC), Southern African Development Community (SADC), Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) and Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). Owing to the scope of this study, only the trade liberalization initiatives under SADC and EAC will be evaluated. The trade liberalization strategies will focus on the intra-regional level. This study entails a comparative study of key legal provisions facilitating elimination of trade barriers within SADC and EAC trade blocs respectively. The study identifies the underlying objectives that inspired the countries to enter the said regional trade agreements. It will focus on the mechanisms adopted to liberalize free movement of goods in the SADC Free Trade Area and the EAC Customs Union respectively. Since both RTAs carry a firm commitment to take affirmative measures to reduce barriers to intra-regional trade, the respective trade agreements should contain a legal framework that will drive the trade liberalization objectives. The study seeks to determine whether the legal frameworks in the SADC and EAC trade regimes is a viable tool to eliminate trade barriers and in turn foster a deeper level of integration. The aim of the study is to ascertain whether their constitutive legal framework is effective enough to achieve this goal. The study concludes that while the SADC FTA and the EAC custom union have already been launched, the levels of intra-regional trade remains low. This is caused by failure of some member states to meet their commitments to eliminate tariff barriers, the surge of non-tarifff barriers and multiple memberships of SADC and EAC members with other regional trade blocs. This study is founded on the belief that lack of enforcement of community law at national and community level is slowing down the implementation of treaty commitments.

The South African Government publicly announced its intention to table the Regulation of Land Holdings Bill in Parliament soon, as part of their land reform priority. This potential new law aims to prohibit foreign ownership of agricultural land and to place ceilings on the size of agricultural land that citizens and foreigners may own. Foreigners will be allowed to conclude long term leases. Some parties most likely to be affected by this proposed new Bill are South Africa's fellow WTO Members in services trade and investors from its BIT partner countries. As a WTO Member and BIT partner, SA undertook various contractual obligations and commitments. The primary objective of this study is therefore to determine whether, by promulgating the proposed Bill, South Africa might be violating any of these obligations or commitments. This is done by considering firstly the policy and constitutional background of the Bill in light of the General and Specific GATS commitments such as the MFN, Transparency, National Treatment and Market Access Commitments. The outcome of this analysis shows that South Africa may violate its National Treatment and Market Access Specific Commitments by imposing the ban on foreign ownership of agricultural land. This is because those foreign services providers intending to own (as opposed to leasing) agricultural land to establish commercial presence in South Africa, will be prohibited from doing so - despite South Africa's GATS Schedule of Specific Commitments not indicating any such land ownership restrictions either horizontally or sector-specifically. Examples of affected service sectors are the Tourism, Manufacturing and Construction sectors. It is then concluded that (i) South Africa could potentially raise the public order General Exception against any possible violation claims; but (ii) that South Africa should in the alternative, rather consider modifying or withdrawing some of its GATS Commitments. The protections which South Africa's BITs provide are then analysed in light of what is publicly known about the proposed Bill. It is concluded, for example, that the restriction of the property rights of existing foreign owners of agricultural land in South Africa by restricting their rights to dispose of their land to South Africans only – may constitute indirect expropriation for which they should be compensated in terms of relevant BITs. Although the country's investment policy vis a vis BIT has changed leading to the termination of, for example, some European-South African BITs, these agreements all contain sunset clauses opening up the country for potential investor-state arbitration claims for up to 20 years. The thesis concludes with the recommendation that South Africa carefully considers the implications of potential claims from its WTO and BIT partners and in also, other alternative land reform options.

The latest round of multilateral trade negotiations at the WTO, the Doha Round, is deadlocked, and it is unlikely that any further significant rule-making progress will be made there. The system's faltering has resulted in an unprecedented move towards preferential trade agreements between WTO Members as alternative negotiating platforms. The result is an ever-expanding divergence of the global trading system, which gives rise to added complexity and wider discrimination than would follow from alternatives - specifically the increased use of plurilateral agreements. Preferential agreements, particularly worryingly, may also have serious consequences for developing and least-developed countries in particular. This paper argues that, in light of the stalling of the Doha Round, greater effort should be made by WTO Members to pursue plurilateral agreements in specific policy areas and to move towards a system incorporating more 'variable geometry' which will result in progress in existing areas which have seen little movement since the Doha Round began. Given the recent proliferation of Preferential Trade Agreements and their potential negative effects on rule-making and the WTO, and on developing countries, it is vital that alternatives are explored in order to promote adaptability which would result in a more effective and relevant WTO.

After gaining independence, African states embraced the idea of regional integration as an approach to boost economic development on the continent. This was evident in the new regional organizations that were predominantly generated among developing states in the southern hemisphere. Majority of these organizations, e.g. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Southern African Development Community (SADC), have continuously been striving to deepen social, political and most importantly economic integration and cooperation in Africa. In an attempt to further the regional integration agenda, there have been quite a number of colonial cross-border arrangements with EU. Assessed based on conventional integration theories by scholars like Ernst B. Haas, the prerequisites for effective regional economic integration in Africa, appear to be less successful, juxtaposed with the more developed and economically independent European Union. Although regional organizations like ECOWAS and SADC have managed to establish free trade areas (FTAs), they have failed to attain their agenda of establishing customs unions. Agendas of this kind among other things, are pertinent to consolidating the regional integration process. Even though several issues may be identified as causes of the inefficiency of the integration scheme on the continent, this paper explores the effect of north south trade agreements, in this case the economic partnership agreements (EPAs), on regional integration processes in Africa.

On the 21st March 2018, leaders from across the African continent met at an extraordinary summit of the African Union (AU) in Kigali, Rwanda to sign a deal for the formation of an African continental free trade area (AfCFTA). This step is perhaps the biggest leap towards the age-long dream of cross-border economic integration on the African continent since the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963. With the continent’s population expected to hit the two billion mark in 2050, it seems the pact could not have come at a better time. Africa, the subject of the agreement, consists of fifty- five States which collectively, is a 1.2 billion people large market however possessing a joint GDP of only $2.5 trillion dollars. If negotiations are concluded, the African continent would have succeeded in the creation of the largest free trade area since the Marrakesh agreement which led to the WTO governed multilateral trading system. Today the top trading partners of African Union member States are non-African countries. Only twenty per cent of Africa’s total trade is with its continental neighbours, whereas an estimated eighty per cent of its trade is with other trading partners across the world. The African continental free trade initiative aims to shift the trade paradigm in this regard, in a way that will increase the region’s share of its internal trade and consequently lead to growth and development. It is against this background that this work assesses the prospects of the new African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) towards meeting the goal of continental development. This research argues that the development integration approach is the most suitable option for the attainment of the ambitious goals of the initiative. In particular, the work explores the ways in which the new AfCFTA can manage the asymmetrical developmental needs of various African States. The research also assesses the dispute settlement mechanisms which are necessary to resolve friction which may arise as deeper levels of integration are attained.

The Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) was established for the purpose of restoring legal and judicial security in the region to attract more investment. The OHADA Treaty included certain areas of business law within its ambit but omitted investment law. There are several laws on investment in the region at the national, regional and sub-regional level that regulate the treatment of foreign investments such as CEMAC and UEMOA investment charters. Moreover OHADA states sign BITs to protect foreign investments. The relationship between the different sub regional laws on investment and OHADA is not yet clear but case law suggests that CEMAC and UEMOA courts recognise the supremacy of OHADA law and their lack of competence to hear matters regulated under OHADA. The standards of protection granted by OHADA states in BITs are very high thus taxing on them. This thesis suggests that OHADA states should either qualify these standards of protection or replace them with more specific provisions. The OHADA system of arbitration cannot effectively settle investment disputes arising out of a BIT leaving international arbitration systems such as ICSID as the best alternative to resolve investment disputes arising out of BITs.

Includes bibliographical references / This research presents an analysis of the health sector in Botswana in the context of a middle income developing country that endeavours to harness benefits from trade in health services. It finds that the health sector is still dominated by public sector provision amidst a gradually developing private sector that is mainly supported by domestic investments. The participation of foreign firms is predominantly through management of local private hospitals by South African hospital groups. Botswana remains a net importer of health services, especially through consumption abroad from the neighbouring South Africa. Nonetheless, import substitution is gradually taking root through the growing private sector that provides services that were previously imported. There remains a significant level of dependence on foreign health professionals, especially specialist medical doctors to augment shortages in the domestic healthcare system. Despite local media reports indicating concerns about Botswana health professionals working outside the country, lack of data impedes the ability to analyse and appreciate the magnitude and possible impact of this movement on the economy and the health sector. The need for further research remains especially on the possible impact of liberalisation of trade in the health sector in order to adequately guide policy. Also, the current inadequacy of data makes it difficult to appreciate the trends in trade in health services, thus, there is need to develop data sets to support analysis and policy debates on the subject.