1. 16 COUNTRIES
5 INSTITUTIONS
9 UNIFORM ACTS

2. OHADA

3. Here…
I S O H A D A F O R L E G A L T E C H N I C I A N S ?

4. O R D O E S I T S E R V E O T H E R P U R P O S E S ?

5. AMBITIOUS GOALS
• making progress toward African
unity
• creating a climate of trust in the
economic systems of the
contracting states
• a view to creating a new center
of development in Africa

6. MEANS TO AN END
• harmonized, simple, modern
and adapted business law
• diligently applied
• provide legal certainty

7. LEGAL CERTAINTY
“prediction of the incidence of the public force through the
incidence of the courts” (Holmes)
It is best served by a set of laws which are:
comprehensive
definite
coherent
diligently applied

8. INCREASED LEGAL
CERTAINTY?
• mixed response
• state level implementation is
Achilles’ heel

9. ACHIEVEMENTS
• a new supranational organization –
no small feat
• nine uniform acts

10. COMPREHENSIVE SET
OF LEGISLATION
• centered on the micro-level
(the productive unit)
• groundwork for better protection of
property and capital formation

11. DIRECTLY APPLICABLE
the drafters intended the uniform
acts to be specific enough to be
directly applicable without
implementing regulation

12. COHERENCE
• art. 10 of the OHADA Treaty provides that
the uniform acts preempt all domestic
statutes covering the same subject matter
• the Court of Justice of the OHADA (CCJA)
guarantees the uniformity of interpretation
of the OHADA law

13. INNOVATIONS
• the status of entreprenant from the
Uniform Act on General Commercial Law
• institution of a movable assets registry
(RCCM) from the Uniform Act on General
Commercial Law
• elimination of the requirement of the
physical dispossession of the grantor with
respect to tangible pledged assets from
the Uniform Act on Secured Transactions

14. A FEW FLAWS
• bankruptcy may be the “unwanted
handmaiden of commercial debt…” but
OHADA member states have no significant
level of commercial lending
• no mediation and conciliation
• only the Uniform Act on Community Owned
Business and the new Entreprenant status
acknowledge the existence of an informal
sector (which accounts for 60 to 85 % of the
GDP of the OHADA member states)

15. ENOUGH LEGISLATING,
NOW ENFORCE
• further legislating activity risks
overreaching
• coordination necessary with other regional
bodies producing law such as UEMOA,
ECOWAS, CEMAC
• when markets become more concentrated
and less local, the drafters should move to
the next step

16. INSTITUTIONAL
CHALLENGES
• budgetary constraints
• CCJA has case backlog in part
structural and in part traceable to
the turmoil in Cote d’Ivoire

17. CHALLENGES SPECIFIC
TO THE RCCM
the RCCM is a movable assets registry
• computerization requires better coordination
among donors, as well as between the
OHADA institutions and the member states
• no reliable civil status registry in most
member States

18. IMPLEMENTATION
CHALLENGES
• coexistence of the OHADA legislation and
non-abrogated domestic provisions
• slow and difficult appropriation by
domestic courts

19. OHADA REMAINS
ABSTRACT
• at the state level it is virtually unknown to
accountants, money lenders, court
registries, chambers of commerce,
business registration units, micro finance
institutions, banks, insurance companies,
arbitration chambers, etc.
• necessary to inventory all institutions and
professionals impacted by OHADA in
everyday activity

20. JUDICIAL SPACE
• the decisions of the CCJA are directly
applicable in the member states
• no adequate mechanism for recognition
and enforcement of final judgments from
lower courts applying the OHADA within
the OHADA space

22. “ LE DROIT N ’ ATTEINT SA
PLÉNITUDE Q U ’ EN SE
RÉALISANT. ”
H E N R I M O T U L S K Y