Book

For decades, investment disputes involving African States have been resolved largely through international arbitral institutions situated beyond the continent. While this system has provided investors with established avenues for dispute resolution, it has also raised enduring questions about legitimacy, cost, regulatory sovereignty, and Africa’s ability to shape the institutions governing its investment relations. Building Trust from Within examines the unfinished project of creating a credible African framework for investment dispute settlement under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). At its centre is a fundamental question: what kind of institution can command the confidence of both African States and international investors while remaining genuinely African in its institutional design and legal identity? Drawing on international investment law, comparative institutional practice, UNCITRAL reform, and Africa’s own experience with regional judicial bodies, the book evaluates the principal options available to the AfCFTA, including ad hoc arbitration, the existing AfCFTA dispute settlement machinery, a standing investment tribunal, and the emerging multilateral investment court. The book argues that institutional design alone is insufficient. The success of any African investment dispute settlement system will ultimately depend on two essential foundations: trust and enforceability. It therefore proposes a hybrid model combining judicial independence, African interpretative autonomy, appellate review, effective enforcement, and a clear framework for political compliance. More than a study of dispute settlement, Building Trust from Within is an argument for an African institution capable of earning legitimacy, protecting legitimate investment, respecting the regulatory autonomy of States, and advancing the broader project of African economic integration.