Making the Multilateral Investment Court Beneficial for Sub-Saharan Africa

The Multilateral Investment Court (‘MIC’) is a newly proposed international court for resolving investor-state disputes.  Investor-state disputes are disputes concerning treatment by states of investments belonging to foreign investors.  For example, if a state (allegedly) expropriates an investor's investment, then the investor would bring a claim in this court against the state.

There is presently another system in place for investors to bring such claims against states.  This system uses arbitration.  For various reasons, some states have advocated for reforms to this current system.  A reform process is now underway at UNCITRAL and it is expected to conclude in the next few years.  Over 100 states are locked in negotiations, including a number of states from Sub-Saharan Africa.  Various reform options have been tabled, from a cosmetically enhanced form of investor-state arbitration to more ambitious reform ideas, particularly the MIC.

Many states of Sub-Saharan Africa have, in the past, signed up to the system under which investor-state disputes are settled via arbitration.  Now there is the chance to sign up to a new system.  Because of the various issues that have arisen in respect of the current system of investor-state arbitration, it should be expected that there will be considerable interest among states of Sub-Saharan Africa to sign up the most far-reaching reform proposal, the MIC. Accordingly, this project asks:

How can the Multilateral Investment Court be made beneficial for the states of Sub-Saharan Africa? ​​​​​​​