Eight countries concerned about the same topic
On 5 and 6 May 2005 the judicial officers of Benin, under the auspices of their distinguished Chairman Robert Bonou, assisted by a charming, efficient and hardworking secretary, Claudine Mougni, organised an international seminar of a high technical legal standard.
Many colleagues from neighbouring countries such as Togo, Cameroon, Burkina-Faso, Congo, Gabon, Senegal, Mali and France, showed by their presence how interested they were in the subject: “debt collection”.
The work of the conference, opened by a representative of the keeper of the seals, minister of justice, legislation and human rights, began with a brilliant presentation on liquidation and seizure of business assets by Mr Jean-Michel Rouzaud and Mme Claudine Mougni, with Mr Jean-Paul Spinelli as moderator and a brilliant director of the participants during the two days of the seminar.
This was an opportunity to understand the complex notion of “business value in Africa”, a concept which Chairman Bonou condemned as sorely lacking from the texts of OHADA.
Afterwards, with the same participants on the dais, there was a study of commercial and civil leases, about which an inflammatory debate occurred on the question whether a summary judgment magistrate has jurisdiction to terminate a commercial lease.
The second morning's work was devoted, still under the auspices of Mr Spinelli, with Mme Rose-Marie Bruno as participant, to the seizure of company shares and to the collection of debts on an amicable basis.
This was an opportunity to get to grips with the complex concepts associated with company law and to set out the enforcement procedures for intangible property rights that a share in the ownership of a company constitutes. This highly technical subject raised very precise questions from the attendees, who were most attentive and interested by the subject.
Debt collection and Voodoo presence...
The discussion of amicable debt collection and focus on techniques and operation methods was carried out in a more light-hearted manner and was an opportunity to stress the absolute necessity for African judicial officers to take charge of these types of cases and not leave them for collection companies.
Work of the last afternoon was devoted to compliance rules, which were inspiringly discussed by chairmen Bonou, Aggrey and Somba.
It was the job of Mr Bonou, Mr Spinelli and the representative of the Minister of Justice to close these two days of intense work, which was fulfilling and of a high level of legal technicality, because of both the topics selected and the highly relevant and frequent involvement of the seminar participants.
The closing dinner, with the arrival of Mr Jacques Isnard, “Chairman of all African Judicial Officers”, was an opportunity to admire the colourful folklore of Mali, to taste the varied local dishes and to glimpse, without actually ever understanding them fully, signs of the presence of Voodoo.
Conference of the chairmen of the Ohada area
The conference of the chairmen of the national chambers of the Ohada area was held on 7 May at Cotonou as a breakout from the international colloquium.
A full agenda
Ten heads of delegations (Benin, Burkina-Faso, Gabon, Congo, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Mali, Togo) as well as Mr Jean-Michel Rouzaud, representing the National Procedural School of France, the UIHJ with its chairman Jacques Isnard, Mr Jean-Paul Spinelli and Mr René Duperray were welcomed by Mr Robert Bonou, chairman of the National Chamber of Judicial Officers of Bénin.
A full agenda awaited the heads of the delegations and in particular the analysis of three major projects:
- implementation of a unified status of the judicial officer throughout the Ohada area
- proposal to publish a uniform act for the direct transmission of judicial acts among judicial officers, replacing the ageing justice cooperation agreement from 1962
- the organisation in 2006 of a large inter-African conference in Pretoria to bring together judicial officers representing the 22 countries of the central, western and southern African areas, members of the UIHJ, except for Madagascar. This conference is meant to initiate a broad reflection on the elaboration of a harmonised status for the judicial officer, as a prelude to the launch of a UIHJ project (CADAT) designed to promote a judicial area in Africa.
Another topic raised was that of debt collection, which had already been broadly discussed during the seminar on the previous day including by the minister of justice Mr Sossa Dorothé.
Africa is awakening to this sector, which is already in the hands of debt collection organisations, and this can only be a good development.
In praise of training
Lastly, the final major issue was training, where discussions turned to the operation of the UFOHJA, which is progressively, with the valuable assistance of the National Procedural School, increasing its audience throughout the area, with the result that knowledge of a growing quality is being conveyed, as was in fact obvious during the two days of the seminar preceding the conference.
All the chairmen commended the technical quality and increased importance of the UFOHJA within the UIHJ.
Before adjourning, the assembly appointed two members of the commission on the reform of status and the uniform act project, Mr Somda and Mr Dembele, and decided upon an information conference at the time of the next colloquium, which will be held at Brazzaville on 6 and 7 October 2005.
