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.

This paper argues that digital trade can benefit developing countries and result in substantial financial gains. The regulation thereof has been at the forefront of negotiations at the multilateral level and within regions of Africa. While developing economies do not typically reap the benefits of digital progression, this paper proposes that digital trade can be developed in such a way so as to prioritise the developmental considerations of Africa specifically. Through observing the progress of the WTO platform for digital trade, namely the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce, it is seen that the multilateral regulation of digital trade is a complex task. Developing country participation at this level is essential to the sustainable development of digital trade. Within Africa, there have been notable advancements in the regulation of digital trade, evidenced by the establishment of COMESA’s Digital FTA. The considerations for the advancement of digital trade for a developing continent are numerous as not only do the traditional barriers to trade still remain a primary concern but there is also the potential threat of furthering the existing digital divide that persists between the developing and the developed world. Therefore, the paper proposes that should Africa consider developing digital trade through AfCFTA (the African Continental Free Trade Agreement) digital trade in services should be prioritised ahead of digital trade in goods. This would help overcome Africa’s trade facilitation and development challenges and advance Africa’s position in the multilateral trading system.

Includes bibliographical references / The focal area of research is to ascertain, if whether the delivery of non-conforming goods, may or may not exist as an excusable impediment under Article 79 of the CISG? To determine this I have taken a different approach, than that, of the more conventional approach of critiquing the prevailing arguments. Essentially by analyzing the commentary of the relevant Advisory Council Members as well as other major contributors to the debate, of which one argument finds its basis on legislative intent of the negotiating parties (Travaux preparatoires) and the other being ascertained on a purely textual interpretation of Article 79. In order to reach a more precise conclusion, the author of this dissertation has funneled these two arguments through the different interpretative methods of treaties to discern which of the two arguments should be regarded as the more appropriate choice, which should be adopted. The existing question therefore would be, should we find a definitive conclusion with the fact that negotiators to the Sales Convention have decided that the delivery of non-conforming goods should not be excused under Article 79? Or should we side with a purely textual approach? Based on the phrase 'failure to perform any of his obligation', the words "any" and "obligation" would consequently include the obligation of the seller to meet the level of conformity as expressed under the contract according to Article 35 of the CISG.

Brexit is one of the most important events of the last decade, but it is still relatively poorly understood. This paper will look at the impact of Brexit, as well as analyse the development of British trade policy, in order to set out potential options for Brexit and a post-Brexit British trade policy. In order to understand Brexit in its full context, it is necessary to understand how British policy has fluctuated over the centuries, as well as look at the potential options for a Brexit deal and what these will mean for Britain going forward. As a relatively recent event, academic work on Brexit is relatively sparse, and previous work often fails to analyse it beyond its immediate impacts. By looking at a history of British trade policy; this paper aims to anaylse Brexit in the context of Britain’s frequent shifts in strategic priorities. Focusing on a review of the existing literature on British trade policy, and that on Brexit, this paper will look at the development of British trade policy, as well as Britain’s relationship with its primary partners (the United States, the EU, and its Empire), and set out both this history and the potential options for future British relationships and policy. While the exact outcome of Brexit is not yet known, this paper will set out some of the potential scenarios. Once Britain leaves the EU, it will have the chance to create its own trade policy independently for the first time in several decades. Although it may face resistance, there is an opportunity for Britain to grasp the chance to create a liberalized 21st century trade policy that caters for its services based economy. Implementing such a strategy could go a long way towards minimizing the inevitable negative consequences of Brexit.