Investment in Africa is often made against a background of perceived, if not actual, political risk. This includes the perception that domestic courts in Africa lack the commercial focus, propriety and efficiency that investors are ordinarily used to; fears that decisions of African courts may not be enforceable in other jurisdictions; and the perception that African host states sometimes act in an unpredictable and/or arbitrary fashion.
Consider, for example, Algeria’s recent reversal of its hydrocarbons law and Zimbabwe’s expropriation of its agricultural industry – a matter which is currently before the World Bank arbitration forum, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
