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Item Open Access Regime on foreign direct investment within the Southern African Development Community (SADC): a comparative study of foreign direct investment (FDI) laws of select Southern African countries(Faculty of Law, University of the Free State, 2003) Baloro, J.; Nulliah, Q.English: This paper has as its emphasis the cogent need for the effective implementation of a general but uniform legal framework or environment for the treatment of foreign direct investment by the recipient African States. Hence its purpose, namely, the need to move towards the development of a harmonised legal regime on foreign direct investment within the Southern African Development Community. This necessitates a comparative study of the FDI laws of select South African countries, examining and analysing the principal features of the legal regimes of some of these countries with the aim of illustrating the areas of commonality and highlighting the differences. It also assesses the feasibility of developing or adopting an already existing model legislation on direct foreign investment by contracting parties to the SADC treaty. It thus proves instructive not to confine this paper to Southern African countries, but rather to draw from the experiences of various other countries on the African continent.Item Open Access Convergence of governance systems in SADEC: the OHADA and COMESA examples: chronicle(Faculty of Law, University of the Free State, 2003) Henning, J. J.Abstract not availableItem Open Access Financial markets in the Southern African development community: the harmonisation and approximation of commercial laws(Faculty of Law, University of the Free State, 2003) Henning, J.; Du Toit, S.English: The free flow of capital has been identified as a critical factor in the process of reducing poverty in the SADC region, along with the lowering of trade barriers. While the trade protocols have been adopted and much has been made of the harmonisation of stock exchange listing requirements and central banking regulation, it is an effort at harmonising corporate law that is noticeably absent. This article focuses on the harmonisation of business law including the supporting financial markets and the process of corporate law reform in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.Item Open Access Dispute resolution in NAFTA and the WTO: a useful guide for SADC?(Faculty of Law, University of the Free State, 2003) Snyman-Van Deventer, E.English: In the process of developing, structuring and formalising the mechanism for settlement of trade disputes in the SADC region, the system for the settlement of disputes in both NAFTA and the WTO can serve as a useful guide for SADC and even more so for the African Union. The swift, fair and just settlement of especially trade disputes will be a major factor in the economic development of the region and it is therefore necessary that a mechanism for the settlement of disputes is established that will serve the aims of SADC and its member states. This article provides an overview of the mechanisms for trade dispute resolution in the WTO and NAFTA as guide for SADC.Item Open Access Trade in services: examples for SADC(Faculty of Law, University of the Free State, 2003) Lehloenya, P. M.English: Over the last few decades, the services sector has become an important component of world trade and the main income earner for many countries. Accelerated by the process of liberalisation, the effects of trade in services now traverse all countries. The main participants and beneficiaries, however, remain developed countries, while developing countries continue to play a marginal role. This comes as a result of a variety of factors ranging from developing countries' inexperience in producing services for export purposes, to trade rules that are more favourable to developed countries, to the complexity and cost of the measures necessary for developing countries to make a successful transition to the new arrangements under liberalisation. Notwithstanding the adverse conditions, opportunities exist in the legal framework developed under the WTO for developing countries to participate more meaningfully in trade in service. These include, inter alia, the possibility of collaborating with foreign firms and benefiting from their experience, as well as establishing regional joint ventures that can compete more effectively at the international level. In the end, the success of developing countries in penetrating the international services market will be determined by the extent to which their domestic service providers manage to adapt to the new trade environment, how all these countries exercise their options in choosing which services to liberalize and their timing in doing so, as well as their ability to resist pressure from developed countries to act against their better judgement.