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Achieving A (Copy)Right To Repair For The Eu’S Green Economy, Anthony D. Rosborough, Leanne Wiseman, Taina Pihlajarinne Jan 2023

Achieving A (Copy)Right To Repair For The Eu’S Green Economy, Anthony D. Rosborough, Leanne Wiseman, Taina Pihlajarinne

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

  • The Right to Repair is a global movement in favour of rebalancing the relationship between manufacturers and end users of products and devices. As part of the European Union (EU) Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan, EU legislators have made the Right to Repair a key policy aim. To date, however, the EU’s Right to Repair policy focus has been predominantly consumer law–oriented.

  • This article sheds light on another key dimension of the Right to Repair—IP (and principally copyright law). It canvasses the ways in which copyright can inhibit repair activities, including curtailing access to repair information and …


Race & International Investment Law: On The Possibility Of Reform And Non-Retrenchment, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe Jan 2023

Race & International Investment Law: On The Possibility Of Reform And Non-Retrenchment, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The international investment regime is in flux. The mainstream practice of investment law and arbitration works on the basis of the regime’s foundations in contract and property law. However, critical scholarship in the field has unearthed the coloniality of power that permeates both the practice of international investment law and the current reform exercise led by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group III. These critical scholars warn of the imminent reproduction and entrenchment of the systemic inequities, power asymmetries, and investment law’s investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) regime which is skewed against post-colonial host states. The …


Lower-Income Countries’ Ongoing Quest For International Tax Justice: A Case Study Of The Oecd’S Tax Allocation Proposal, Okanga Ogbu Okanga, Kim Brooks Dec 2022

Lower-Income Countries’ Ongoing Quest For International Tax Justice: A Case Study Of The Oecd’S Tax Allocation Proposal, Okanga Ogbu Okanga, Kim Brooks

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The viability of our international tax system hinges on two things: (1) safeguarding the effective flow of international activities and (2) ensuring that countries can adequately collect tax on the income derived from those activities. Each of these fundamentals relies on a defensible/fair allocation of taxing rights between countries with competing tax jurisdiction (inter-nation equity).

The recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)-led multilateral effort to transform international tax rules to ensure that countries can adequately tax multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in the global digital economy (OECD proposal) has reignited inter-nation equity conversations. Although important to all countries, inter-nation …


Zen And The Art Of Repair Manuals: Enabling A Participatory Right To Repair Through An Autonomous Concept Of Eu Copyright Law, Anthony D. Rosborough Aug 2022

Zen And The Art Of Repair Manuals: Enabling A Participatory Right To Repair Through An Autonomous Concept Of Eu Copyright Law, Anthony D. Rosborough

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Repair manuals are an essential resource for repairing today’s modern and computerised devices. And though these manuals may contain purely utilitarian and uncopyrightable facts, they often receive copyright protection in their entirety as literary works. This protection can impede community-based efforts toward fostering a culture of participatory repair throughout the EU, including repair cafés and tool libraries. Participatory repair activities provide numerous environmental, social, and economic benefits. This article explores whether directive 2001/29/EC’s exception for “uses in connection with the repair or demonstration of equipment” at Article 5(3)(l) (the “Repair Exception”) may offer an avenue for enabling such non-profit participatory …


A Reflection On African Trade And Investment Wars In Context, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Gertrude Amarh Jan 2022

A Reflection On African Trade And Investment Wars In Context, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Gertrude Amarh

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

African trade and investment wars and their implication for the development of international economic law (IEL) in Africa are under-appreciated[1]. Except for a handful of literature in the last two decades, most of the scholarly work on economic integration in Africa has not focused on intra-African trade and investment wars. Yet, some of these trade wars have endured for many years. By trade wars, we mean the fracture of economic (trade and investment) relations between cooperating African States. We do not understand trade wars in the strict sense that trade economist or classic trade law do. These approaches understand trade …


Reflections On The Value Of Socio-Legal Approaches To International Economic Law In Africa, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe Jul 2021

Reflections On The Value Of Socio-Legal Approaches To International Economic Law In Africa, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In their introductory essay to the 2021 Chicago Journal of International Law Symposium, Daniel Abebe, Adam Chilton, and Tom Ginsburg offer an account of “the rise of the social science approach to international law, explain the basics of the method, and advocate for its continued adoption.”

This Essay critically assesses how and why one might use socio-legally inspired methods (analytical, empirical, and normative) for the study of international economic law (IEL) in Africa. It illustrates the empirical method’s importance in understanding one of the most challenging aspects of the study of IEL in Africa: capturing the data and dynamism of …


Cash Back: A Yellowhead Institute Red Paper, Shiri Pasternak, Naiomi Metallic, Yumi Numata, Anita Sekharan, Jasmyn Galley, Samuel Wong May 2021

Cash Back: A Yellowhead Institute Red Paper, Shiri Pasternak, Naiomi Metallic, Yumi Numata, Anita Sekharan, Jasmyn Galley, Samuel Wong

Reports & Public Policy Documents

Picking up from Land Back, the first Red Paper by Yellowhead about the project of land reclamation, Cash Back looks at how the dispossession of Indigenous lands created a dependency on the state due to the loss of economic livelihood. Cash Back is about restitution from the perspective of stolen wealth.

From Canada’s perspective, the value of Indigenous lands rests on what can be extracted and commodified. The economy has been built on the transformation of Indigenous lands and waterways into corporate profit and national power. In place of their riches in territory, Canada set up for First Nations a …


Effective Taxation In Africa: Confronting Systemic Vulnerability Through Inclusive Global Tax Governance, Okanga Ogbu Okanga, Lyla Latif Jan 2021

Effective Taxation In Africa: Confronting Systemic Vulnerability Through Inclusive Global Tax Governance, Okanga Ogbu Okanga, Lyla Latif

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Implicit within the African fiscal architecture are embedded vulnerabilities to exogenous factors which challenge their domestic revenue mobilization (DRM) strategies. These DRM challenges are attributable to asymmetrical power relationships that exist within the international tax regime (ITR). The rules governing international taxation have largely been devised by developed countries resonating their own economic purposes, resulting in a regressive relationship that overlooks African perspectives in the creation of tax norms. Consequently, policymaking, and scholarship have focused extensively on curbing these power asymmetries that have resulted in vulnerable African tax systems. Continental and domestic approaches are now aligned towards fostering reform of …


Taxing Capital In The Age Of Intangibles, Eurallyah Akinyi, Dan Ciuriak Jan 2021

Taxing Capital In The Age Of Intangibles, Eurallyah Akinyi, Dan Ciuriak

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The rise of the intangibles economy has led to a significant erosion of corporate tax revenue in the innovation-intensive advanced economies, even as the share of national income flowing to capital rose. For developing countries, the erosion is worse and comes on top of substantial erosion of corporate tax revenues from the tangibles economy due to weak tax administration and corruption. In this paper, we take up the questions of how big is the taxing problem that the intangibles economy has raised, and whose problem is it. Further, we consider how well the proposed OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework measures up in …


Theorizing Developmental Regionalism In Narratives Of African Regional Trade Agreement, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe Dec 2020

Theorizing Developmental Regionalism In Narratives Of African Regional Trade Agreement, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

There is a gap in the legal scholarship on African regional trade agreements (RTAs) that links law and development to narratives of developmental regionalism. This article undertakes a critical analysis of the ‘developmental regionalism’ paradigm as they have been applied in the study of African RTAs. The article identifies three areas of critical intervention to address the incoherence of developmental regionalism in Africa: limitation in theory; narrow conceptualization; and an insufficient attention to the role of law. First, to address the gap in theorizing the ‘development’ in developmental regionalism, this article makes the case for an explicit linking of Law …


Introduction To The Inaugural Issue Of The African Journal Of International Economic Law, James Thuo Gathii, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe Oct 2020

Introduction To The Inaugural Issue Of The African Journal Of International Economic Law, James Thuo Gathii, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Welcome to the inaugural issue of the African Journal of International Economic Law(AfJIEL) Our goal is to fill a gap in journals covering international economic law relating to Africa and the Global South This first issue fulfills our promise to launch the AfJIEL as announced at the 2019 African International Economic Law Network conference in Nairobi


Africa’S Participation In International Economic Law In The 21st Century: An Introduction, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Ohio Omiunu, Amaka Vanni, Regis Y. Simo, Luwam Dirar Oct 2020

Africa’S Participation In International Economic Law In The 21st Century: An Introduction, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Ohio Omiunu, Amaka Vanni, Regis Y. Simo, Luwam Dirar

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This is the introduction to the Manchester Journal of International Economic Law Symposium Issue based on selected papers presented at the Fourth Biennial Conference of the African International Economic Law Network at Strathmore Law School, Nairobi, Kenya in July 2019. The introduction also reflects on four important spaces for the consolidation of the scholarship, teaching and research, practice and policy relating to international economic law in Africa.


Covid-19 And South-South Trade & Investment Cooperation: Three Emerging Narratives, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Clair Gammage May 2020

Covid-19 And South-South Trade & Investment Cooperation: Three Emerging Narratives, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Clair Gammage

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the frailties of economic relations across different aspects of the globalized network. From the national, through the sub-regional, to the regional to the international levels, questions have arisen regarding the seemingly interconnected, yet fractured socio-economic relationships in our modern societies. In this essay we shall focus on the trade and investment dimension of South-South relations that have been affected by the pandemic. In doing so, we shall reveal the (often overlooked or taken for granted) linkages with race in South-South relations. We identify the way(s) in which the Covid-19 pandemic has made obvious the latent …


Introduction To The Covid-19 Symposium On International Economic Law In The Global South, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, James Thuo Gathii, Titilayo Adebola, Nthope Mapefane May 2020

Introduction To The Covid-19 Symposium On International Economic Law In The Global South, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, James Thuo Gathii, Titilayo Adebola, Nthope Mapefane

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted all facets of human relations on a magnitude not witnessed in the post-World War II era. Due to the interdependence of countries in the international system, it is not surprising that the unfolding public health crisis has had significant ramifications for the functioning of the global economy as well. In responding to this global health crisis, and the associated fallouts, the academic community has a crucial role to play in finding solutions to the hydra-headed problems we all face. Driven by this sense of urgency and responsibility, AfronomicsLaw put out a call for contributions in …


Symposium Introduction: Assessing The Roles Of Theory And Methodology In The Study Of Iel In Africa, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe Jan 2020

Symposium Introduction: Assessing The Roles Of Theory And Methodology In The Study Of Iel In Africa, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

No abstract provided.


Dispute Settlement Under The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement: A Preliminary Assessment, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe Jan 2020

Dispute Settlement Under The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement: A Preliminary Assessment, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) will add a new dispute settlement system to the plethora of judicial mechanisms designed to resolve trade disputes in Africa. Against the discontent of Member States and limited impact the existing highly legalized trade dispute settlement mechanisms have had on regional economic integration in Africa, this paper undertakes a preliminary assessment of the AfCFTA Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM). In particular, the paper situates the AfCFTA-DSM in the overall discontent and unsupportive practices of African States with highly legalized dispute settlement systems and similar WTO-Styled DSMs among other shortcomings. Notwithstanding the transplantation of …


Covid-19 And South-South Trade & Investment Cooperation: Three Emerging Narratives, Clair Gammage, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe Jan 2020

Covid-19 And South-South Trade & Investment Cooperation: Three Emerging Narratives, Clair Gammage, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the frailties of economic relations across different aspects of the globalized network. From the national, through the sub-regional, to the regional to the international levels, questions have arisen regarding the seemingly interconnected, yet fractured socio-economic relationships in our modern societies. In this essay we shall focus on the trade and investment dimension of South-South relations that have been affected by the pandemic. In doing so, we shall reveal the (often overlooked or taken for granted) linkages with race in South-South relations. We identify the way(s) in which the Covid-19 pandemic has made obvious the latent …


Symposium Introduction: Vulnerabilities In The Trade And Investment Regimes In The Age Of Covid-19, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Clair Gammage Jan 2020

Symposium Introduction: Vulnerabilities In The Trade And Investment Regimes In The Age Of Covid-19, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Clair Gammage

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This Symposium is one of the follow-up publications to the Afronomicslaw.org Webinar III on “Vulnerability in the Trade and Investment Regime in the Age of COVID-19”

‘Vulnerability’ in trade and investment regimes is not a new phenomenon. Nor, is the concept of ‘crisis’. While IEL scholarship has acknowledged some of the way(s) in which the formalisation of international legal rules in trade and investment can act like a ‘straightjacket’ on global south states, sustaining and creating forms of dependencies that are difficult to escape, there is a notable lack of meaningful engagement with the contours and manifestations of concepts like …


Africa’S Participation In International Economic Law In The 21st Century: An Introduction, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Ohio Omiunu, Amaka Vanni, Regis Y. Simo, Luwam Dirar Jan 2020

Africa’S Participation In International Economic Law In The 21st Century: An Introduction, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Ohio Omiunu, Amaka Vanni, Regis Y. Simo, Luwam Dirar

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This is the introduction to the Manchester Journal of International Economic Law Symposium Issue based on selected papers presented at the Fourth Biennial Conference of the African International Economic Law Network at Strathmore Law School, Nairobi, Kenya in July 2019. The introduction also reflects on four important spaces for the consolidation of the scholarship, teaching and research, practice and policy relating to international economic law in Africa.


Theorizing Developmental Regionalism In Narratives Of African Regional Trade Agreements (Rtas), Olabisi D. Akinkugbe Jan 2020

Theorizing Developmental Regionalism In Narratives Of African Regional Trade Agreements (Rtas), Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

There is a gap in the legal scholarship on African regional trade agreements (RTAs) that links law and development to narratives of developmental regionalism. This article addresses the gap by making the case for an explicit linking of Law and Development scholarship and Developmental Regionalism in African RTAs.

First, the article argues that the cross- pollination of the fields provides an opportunity for a more rigorous understanding of developmental regionalism in African RTAs. Second, the article that developmental regionalism as an analytical tool responds to and encapsulates the multidimensional character of African RTAs. Third, the article argues for a more …


Doing Development Differently: Reorienting Sino-African Trade And Investment Relations After The Pandemic, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Clair Gammage Jan 2020

Doing Development Differently: Reorienting Sino-African Trade And Investment Relations After The Pandemic, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Clair Gammage

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article explores the evolutive nature of Sino-African relations and questions how Chinese interventions may influence Africa’s development stories in a post-Covid world. We examine whether the crisis could serve as a catalyst for reorienting the strategic partnership between China and Africa away from debt diplomacy towards genuine partnership or a breaking apart of the long-standing relationship. This article presents three narratives to illustrate how the future direction of Sino-African relations may change and how this might enable Africa to ‘do development differently’.


Intangibles And Transfer Pricing Regulation In Nigeria: An Exposition, Okanga Ogbu Okanga Jan 2020

Intangibles And Transfer Pricing Regulation In Nigeria: An Exposition, Okanga Ogbu Okanga

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Intangibles play an important role in the processes of many business enterprises. They facilitate value creation and enhance the profitability of businesses that deploy them. They are also valuable assets that can be traded in themselves, although their appropriate values are often difficult to ascertain. As such, studies show that transactions in intangibles also provide opportunities for profit shifting by multinational enterprises through transfer (mis)pricing; a situation that deprives source states of due and sometimes significant tax revenue. This situation has over time triggered both unilateral and concerted responses by states anxious to cauterize this conduit of revenue bleeding. Through …


The Ethical Tax Judge, Kim Brooks Jan 2020

The Ethical Tax Judge, Kim Brooks

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This chapter advances the claim that judges have an ethical obligation of competence that requires them to enhance their knowledge about language (in the context of statutory interpretation) and income tax law design and policy. It articulates some of the foundational understandings that support that competence and provides a simple hierarchy of approaches to interpreting income tax law. It concludes by contending that greater competence is not only more ethical but also advances other important societal goals fulfilled by the imposition of income tax systems.


International Economic Law In The Global South And Covid-19, James Thuo Gathii, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Nthope Mapefane, Ohio Omiunu, Titilayo Adebola Jan 2020

International Economic Law In The Global South And Covid-19, James Thuo Gathii, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Nthope Mapefane, Ohio Omiunu, Titilayo Adebola

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted all facets of human relations on a magnitude not witnessed in the post-World War II era. Due to the interdependence of countries in the international system, it is not surprising that the unfolding public health crisis has had significant ramifications for the functioning of the global economy as well. In responding to this global health crisis, and the associated fallouts, the academic community has a crucial role to play in finding solutions to the hydra-headed problems we all face.

Driven by this sense of urgency and responsibility, AfronomicsLaw put out a call for contributions in …


Reverse Contributors? African State Parties, Icsid, And The Development Of International Investment Law, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe Dec 2019

Reverse Contributors? African State Parties, Icsid, And The Development Of International Investment Law, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

International investment disputes involving African states before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) have generated significant critical inquiry. Yet, accounts of their contribution to the development of international investment law as a result of these dispute are limited. This article addresses this gap. It examines the contribution of some of the high-profile ICSID disputes involving African states to the development of international investment law. Notwithstanding the charges against African States in ICSID, I contend that the involvement of African States in ICSID Disputes has contributed to the development of international investment law. In particular, the jurisprudence that …


Fourth African International Economic Law Network Biennial Conference Symposium, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Regis Y. Simo, Luwam Dirar, Ohio Omiunu Oct 2019

Fourth African International Economic Law Network Biennial Conference Symposium, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Regis Y. Simo, Luwam Dirar, Ohio Omiunu

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In July 2019, the African International Economic Law Network (AfIELN), held its Fourth Biennial Conference under the theme “Africa and International Economic Law in the 21st Century” at the Strathmore University Law School (Nairobi, Kenya). This symposium contains some of the papers presented at this conference in their abridged forms. Before introducing the authors’ views on this Conference’s broader theme, we provide the important context under which the Conference took place.

The AfIELN Fourth Biennial Conference came at a time when the African Union Members had just launched the operational phase of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), whose …


Reverse Contributors? African State Parties, Icsid, And The Development Of International Investment Law, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe Jan 2019

Reverse Contributors? African State Parties, Icsid, And The Development Of International Investment Law, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

International investment disputes involving African states before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) have generated significant critical inquiry. Yet, accounts of their contribution to the development of international investment law as a result of these dispute are limited. This article addresses this gap. It examines the contribution of some of the high-profile ICSID disputes involving African states to the development of international investment law. Notwithstanding the charges against African States in ICSID, I contend that the involvement of African States in ICSID Disputes has contributed to the development of international investment law. In particular, the jurisprudence that …


Revisiting The Economic Community Of West African States: A Socio-Legal Analysis, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe Jan 2017

Revisiting The Economic Community Of West African States: A Socio-Legal Analysis, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Recent years have seen a growing scholarly interest in the conditions of emergence of regional trade agreements in Africa. These analyses have advanced our knowledge on a range of technical issues, from specific institutional transformation of regional economic communities such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to broad legal issues relating to the provisions of the regional trade agreements. Most literature on ECOWAS is, however, informed by legal formalism that interprets the text of the treaties strictly and without context, leading to a dominant interpretation of failure.

By contrast, this thesis adopts a socio-legal approach and argues …


Background: Towards A Critical Assessment Of Canadian-Nigerian Bilateral Relations, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe Jan 2017

Background: Towards A Critical Assessment Of Canadian-Nigerian Bilateral Relations, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Although the diplomatic relations between Canada and Nigeria is almost six decades old, the nature of this bilateral relationship has not been the subject of rigorous academic research. While a recent body of research by international relations scholars has taken up the broad critical study of Canadian-African relations, a significant gap exists with respect to studies that focus on the context of Canada’s engagement with individual African countries. Against this background, this paper briefly examines the bilateral trade and investment engagements between Nigeria and Canada. The modest aim is to highlight the existing framework that guides the relations of both …


The High Cost Of Transferring The Dream, Kim Brooks Jan 2016

The High Cost Of Transferring The Dream, Kim Brooks

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This paper is part of a larger project where I use the facts in tax decisions to reveal something about who we are. It looks through a small window into the lives of the people who find themselves caught between our collective and their individual expenditure aspirations. More specifically, it explores the circumstances in which individuals find that their outstanding tax debts pose a threat to their ability to maintain ownership of their home.

In this paper I use the facts of tax cases for two ends. First, I am interested in disrupting legal knowledge hierarchies. We choose cases to …