Africas International Investment Law Regimes

Over the last six decades, Africa has attracted less than 4% of global foreign direct investment, and yet is party to nearly a quarter of the world’s investment cases under the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The African states’ support was indispensable for the creation of the ICSID, but once it began its adjudicative function it became a source of dread for Africans. Since the beginning of the new millennium, however, Africa has embarked on innovative reform efforts and questioned the shortcomings of international investment law.

Africa’s International Investment Law Regimes offers a qualitative study of more than 30 cases ranging from the 1970s to present and methodically appraises Africa’s investment treaty activity. In these examinations, Won L. Kidane assesses whether the adopted and proposed continental, regional, and bilateral reform efforts are indeed responsive to the actual deficiencies of the existing regime.

This book is unique in its thorough treatment of African ICSID cases. Kidane’s conclusions illuminate a lack of evidence in claims of institutional bias but address the reckoning African states have undergone to become full participants in the process with proper representation. Africa’s International Investments Law Regimes is an essential read for academics, practitioners, policy makers, and international stakeholders alike as these cases and reformed treaties have and will continue to shape the jurisprudence of the ICSID, the nature of international investment law, and ISDS in general.

Professor Won L. Kidane is a Fulbright scholar and professor of law at Villanova University. He is the author and co-author of four other books and more than 40 law review articles and book chapters. Prior to his position at Villanova University, he taught at Seattle University for 15 years and at Penn State Law for three years. He has also practiced law with DLA Piper and Hunton and Williams in Washington D.C.

Kidane has represented African states and their instrumentalities and enterprises in investor-state, state-to-state, and commercial arbitration for more than 20 years. He holds a SJD from Georgetown, a JD from the University of Illinois College of Law Urbana-Champaign, an LLM from the University of Georgia and an LLB from Addis Ababa University. He is a member of the bars of District of Columbia, Illinois, and Washington state.