The Kampala Convention is a global first, yet, over a decade since it came into force, Africa hosts more than half of the world's internally displaced persons (IDPs). This article explores how the Kampala Convention could mitigate internal displacement by asking which of the enforcement mechanisms in the convention would work best to protect and advance durable solutions for IDPs in Africa. The convention adopts a state obligation model and contains judicial and non-judicial enforcement mechanisms. Evaluation of these mechanisms reveals some flaws, including the unclear mandate of the Conference of States, an inoperative African Court and private actors lacking locus standi. The article argues that some amendments to the convention are necessary to foster enforcement. Literature on internal displacement in Africa from an enforcement perspective is limited, so this article makes a significant contribution.

One of the primary goals of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is to establish a single market for goods and services in order to achieve economic integration in Africa. Experts opine that the AfCFTA can be a game changer for improving intra-African trade and may pave the way to economic diversification and inclusion. To maximize the potential of the AfCFTA, African nations must eliminate or minimize trade and non-trade barriers that can undermine the AfCFTA's true intention. Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa; therefore for the AfCFTA to flourish, Nigeria must implement targeted industrial, structural and policy changes to facilitate the achievement of the AfCFTA's objectives. This article addresses protectionist cabotage as a non-tariff trade hurdle to AfCFTA aims, as well as the need for Nigeria to abolish or liberalize its restrictive regime on domestic cabotage trade. It proposes that Nigeria should take the lead in campaigning for a regional cabotage regime and eliminate its protectionist policy.

Many countries write their constitutions with some form of international involvement. Internationalized constitutional assistance has been made easier by technology as well as trade and political exigencies. The question, therefore, is: How does this inevitable foreign influence impact constitutional legitimacy? This article discusses this question and asserts that foreign influence interacts with three approaches of constitutional design to shape constitutional legitimacy: (a) popular participation, (b) elites’ contracts, and (c) transnational constitutional implants. Such a transactional relationship is referred to as the “three-stone legitimacy theory”, which implicates both the internal and the external legitimacy of a constitution. The former means citizens’ acceptance that a constitution meets their aspirations, while the latter refers to the international community's satisfaction with the resulting constitution as guaranteeing the universal democratic ethos. The article ends with a proposition conceptualized as a “blueprint” for a democratic constitutional legitimacy in South Sudan.

The statutory formulation of the rules of evidential admissibility in African jurisdictions can be characterized into two, positive and negative, broad categories. This article uses the Sowetan trope of a pair of conjoined twins, popularly known as Mpho le Mphonyana in South Africa, to analyse these two formulations with a view of exposing eight doctrinal, institutional and theoretical fallacies associated with these (English) common law colonial inheritances in Africa. The continued, and popular, focus on the Euro-American world by African Evidence scholars, notwithstanding the prevalence of these kinds of fallacies, raises serious questions not only about the scholarly and institutional future of African jurisdictions, but also about what precisely Africans think of themselves in a world that renders them largely invisible for scholarly purposes.

Human rights are best protected when they enjoy the binding enforceability of the law. Recognizing the binding status of human rights in national constitutions and legal systems is central to demanding accountability, compelling actions and sanctioning violations. Conferring human rights with legal recognition also empowers people and provides the option of pursuing remedies. Furthermore, the duty of the state to protect and respect human rights is triggered when they receive prescription under the law. In Nigeria, however, certain rights pertaining to economic, social and cultural rights do not receive the binding force of constitutional law. This article argues that the judiciary can act as an alternative and complementary recourse to advance and secure the commitment to the right to health. Drawing on a comparative perspective from countries where the judiciary has proactively upheld this right, it maintains that the Nigerian judiciary can take action to enhance the legal and judicial implementation of the right to health.

Following a public outcry about Eric Aniva being hired to have sex with children, he was arrested, tried and convicted of attempting to engage in a harmful practice and also of engaging in a harmful practice, contrary to Malawi's Gender Equality Act. Aniva's trial attracted significant public attention and highlighted kulowa kufa, the cultural practice at the centre of his trial. This article revisits Aniva's trial. By focusing on the operation of the law in judicial processes as well as the dynamics of judicial decision-making, it demonstrates and concludes that Aniva's trial may have been compromised. Specifically, the article analyses the state's failure to identify and parade material witnesses notwithstanding the alleged multiplicity of Aniva's victims, the role of the media in the trial as well as the probable effects of the trial court's selective recourse to international human rights standards.

This article evaluates statutory provisions and case law regarding a mortgagee's rights to exercise its statutory power of sale over the matrimonial home in Nigeria. It reveals that no statute protects the rights of family members, particularly wives and children, in the mortgaged home. The mortgagee must grapple with the reality of ownership, as wives often resort to litigation to set aside sales, on the ground that they are joint owners with their husbands. Ironically, some Supreme Court decisions, while protecting the interests of other family members (contrary to the established principles of property law), have tended to ignore the mortgagee's power of sale over the mortgaged matrimonial home, thus making it unattractive to lending institutions as collateral. This article recommends that all parties’ interests should be set out in a legal framework, as in England, where a non-owning spouse's right of occupation must be registered with the land registry.

Botswana's Trade Disputes Act was enacted to provide for a settlement of trade disputes by the Commissioner of Labour, mediators and arbitrators and for the establishment of the Industrial Court as a court of law and equity. Mediators therefore play a critical role in the resolution of trade disputes within Botswana's labour law framework, and while their role is facilitative, their contribution to the trajectory of resolving labour disputes is significant. This article analyses the form of mediation envisaged under the act, and the mediator's role and powers. It further considers circumstances under and the extent to which the Industrial Court may intervene in the decisions of mediators.

In 2003, the Botswanan Court of Appeal decided in Kanane v The State that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was not proscribed by the Botswanan Constitution because no evidence had been adduced showing that the society of Botswana was ready for gay individuals. After sixteen years, things changed: in 2019, in Letsweletse Motshidiemang and LEGABIBO (as amicus) v The Attorney General, the High Court held that the law criminalizing anal intercourse violated the fundamental rights of gay people. In 2021, the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court decision. This commentary briefly examines these three decisions. It argues that Kanane gave too much weight to public opinion to the detriment of constitutional interpretation. Through a robust approach to generous interpretation of fundamental rights, the Motshidiemang decisions partly remedied the flaw in Kanane. However, judicial clarification is still required on some aspects of the decision.

The act of whistleblowing is not common in Nigeria; this can be attributed to the cultural norms of Nigerian society where deference is paid to those in positions of power and it is often viewed as taboo to speak up against them. This problem of not speaking up is further compounded by the lack of robust whistleblowing legislation which protects whistleblowers from reprisals. The need to protect whistleblowers was brought to the forefront after the implementation in 2016 of the Nigerian stopgap policy on whistleblowing, leading to the Whistleblower Protection Bill proposed in 2019, legislation that seeks to provide wider protection to whistleblowers. This article examines this bill, identifying its limitations; it does not rehash previous scholarly debates about whether incentives are necessary, but rather focuses on bringing the Nigerian perspective to the fore, thus contributing to the existing literature in this area.