The project proposed by the CREDECO, Centre de Recherche en droit économique [Economic Law Research Center] is aimed at measuring the contribution of the substantive law of the OHADA ⁽¹⁾ and of certain countries likely to join it (Mauritania, Democratic Republic of the Congo) to attracting both national and foreign investment.

This choice explains the broadening of the specific subjects selected for study, specifically the inclusion of the analysis of the laws governing the transport of goods by land and above all the law concerning the means likely to promote the entry of SMEs into a formal, taxable economy, as well as intellectual property law.

The Response to the call for this study is supported by the mobilization of African partners (Senegalese, Beninese, Congolese and Mauritanian). It is intended mainly to put into perspective the current solutions and lines of reform to ensure the attractiveness of the law of the OHADA in the context of the globalized competition between legal systems.

The research is intended to provide concrete knowledge of the legal framework of the law of the OHADA and the most pressing gaps in terms of uniform laws within the OHADA framework and the extension of OHADA law to other African countries.

The issue here is to determine whether the transition towards a legal model that provides “certainty” for economic operators is sufficiently addressed by the current laws or whether other lines of more substantive research should be taken into account, not just by the African public players but also by the institutions that lend funds and international organizations that deal with the development of sub-Saharan Africa.

The study is a study of the procedural law of debt collection and a substantive study of possible links between the formal and informal sectors to promote sustainable development.

The approach is both theoretical (legal framework of the influence of romano-germanic law, customary law, and Anglo-American law) and practical (concrete implementation in the area of legal mechanisms).

The project will adhere to the methodology of economic law: a substantive analysis. For the developing African states as well as for their public and private partners, the operationalization of the tools of economic law is of vital importance. The project addresses, moreover, comparative law research not solely from a formal standpoint but also analyzes the conditions of the economic development of sub-Saharan Africa in the larger context of the globalized competition between legal systems.

⁽¹⁾ "Organisation for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa"