Legislative versus judicial harmonisation of law: a comparative study of Ohada commercial law and the US uniform commercial code

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Published date: 30 October 2020
• Citation: (2020) 7(1) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 1
• Pages: 1-29
• Author: Rudahindwa, J.B.
• Date: 30 October 2020

1

LEGISLATIVE VERSUS JUDICIAL

HARMONISATION OF LAW: A COMPARATIVE

STUDY OF OHADA COMMERCIAL LAW AND

THE US UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE*

Jonathan Bashi Rudahindwa†

Abstract

The Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa (OHADA)

was established 27 years ago, in October 1993. Using legislative harmonisation or

unification of its 17 Member States’ business laws, through the adoption of several

Uniform Acts that are meant to be simple and modern, the organisation aims to

produce a business law that is adapted to each Member State’s context, thereby

facilitating commercial transactions within the OHADA area. While noting the

relative success of the OHADA harmonisation or unification process, this article

aims to highlight the advantages and shortcomings of its legislative harmonisation

mechanism. This aspect of the OHADA process is analysed by considering the

judicial harmonisation process that resulted in the adoption of the United States

Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), which is codified legislation that aims to

harmonise the law of sales and other commercial transactions across US states,

hence promoting inter-state trade. This comparative analysis is conducted with a

view to perfecting the harmonisation of business laws across Africa, while ensuring

that harmonisation achieves the goal of promoting intra-African trade. The

ultimate goal of the article is to demonstrate the need to place a greater emphasis

on judicial harmonisation and highlight its ability as a law-making method to

produce a commercial law that truly meets the needs and aspirations of the business

community across the continent.

Keywords: OHADA; Uniform Commercial Code; legislative unification;

judicial unification; law refor m

Résumé

L’Organisation pour l’Harmonisation en Afrique du Droit des Affaires (OHADA)

a été créé il y a vingt-six ans, en octobre 1993. Usant de l’harmonisation/unification

législative du droit des affaires de ses 17 États membres, par l’adoption de plusieurs

Actes Uniformes qui se veulent simples et modernes et qui sont directement

* This article was written while the author was a research fellow in 2018 at the Centre for

Comparative Law in Africa (CCLA) under the Olu Akinkugbe Business Law in Africa Fellowship

administered by the CCLA, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town. The author gratefully

acknowledges the Olu Akinkugbe Fellowship and the Centre for Comparative Law in Africa.

† Lecturer in law, Univer sité Protestante au Congo (DRC); Research Associate, Centre for

Comparative Law in Africa (CCLA), University of Cape Town; Research Associate, School of Law,

SOAS, University of London. Correspondence address: Université Protestante au Congo, Faculté

de Droit, Croisement des Avenue Libération et Boulevard Triomphal, Commune de Lingwala, Ville

de Kinshasa, République Démocratique du Congo, BP. 4745 Kinshasa 2. Email: jbashi@upc.ac.cd.

(2020) 7(1) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 1

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2 JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE LAW IN AFRICA VOL 7, NO 1, 2020

applicables, l’organisation vise à produire un droit des affaires adapté au contexte

de chaque État membre, facilitant ainsi les échanges commerciaux dans l’espace

OHADA. Tout en reconnaissant le succès relatif du mécanisme d’harmonisation/

unification de l’OHADA, cet article vise à mettre en évidence les avantages et les

inconvénients de son processus d’harmonisation législative. Cet aspect du processus

de l’OHADA est analysé en marge du processus d’harmonisation judiciaire

qui a abouti à l’adoption du Code Commercial Uniforme (U.C.C – Uniform

Commercial Code) des États-Unis, une législation codifiée visant à harmoniser

le droit de la vente et autres transactions commerciales entre les États américains,

favorisant ainsi le commerce interétatique. Cette étude comparative est menée

dans le but de contribuer au perfectionnement du processus d’harmonisation du

droit des affaires en Afrique, tout en veillant à ce que celui-ci atteigne son objectif

de facilitation du commerce intra-africain. L’objectif ultime de cet article est de

démontrer la nécessité de mettre davantage l’accent sur l’harmonisation judiciaire et

de souligner sa capacité à élaborer un droit commercial qui réponde réellement aux

besoins et aux aspirations du monde des affaires sur le continent.

Mots-clés: OHADA; code commercial uniforme; unification juridique;

unification judiciaire; réforme du droit

Introduction: OHADA, unification and beyond

The Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa

(‘OHADA’) was established 27 years ago by the signing of the Treaty of

Port-Louis on 17 October 1993. OHADA was established with a view to

providing its Member States with a secure and reliable legal framework

and a business environment conducive to f acilitating commercial

transactions.1 OHADA is also a law refor m project, which aims to replace

the business laws of its member countries, which had become obsolete and

anachronistic, with simple and moder n rules adapted to the economies of

these Member States.2 To achieve this objective, OHADA opted for the

‘harmonisation’3 of the commercial laws of its Member States through

the adoption of common commercial rules called Uniform Acts, which

govern specific areas of commercial law and are implemented through

1 Mancuso, S. ‘Trends on the harmonisation of contract law in Africa’ (2007) 13(1) Annual

Survey of International and Comparative Law 157–178 at 157.

2 See ar t 1 of the OHADA Treaty. See Nzalie, J.E. ‘Reflecting on OHADA law reform mission: Its

impact on company law in Anglophone Cameroon’ (2002) Annale de la Faculté des Sciences Juridiques

et Politiques Tome 6, N° Special, available at http://www.ohada.com/doctrine/ohadata/D-04-42.

html [Accessed on 25 September 2018]. See also Mancuso op cit note 1 at 158.

3 As noted in Bashi Rudahindwa, J. ‘OHADA and the making of transnational commercial

law in Africa’ (2018) 11(2) Law and Development Review at 8, ‘by adopting common rules which are

meant to be the same in every Member State, OHADA has opted for legislative unification rather

than simple harmonisation’.

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