Land reform and investment protection after the Campbell litigation: can SADC learn from NAFTA?

Abstract

In 2008, Mike Campbell and other former commercial farmers took the Zimbabwean Government to the erstwhile SADC Tribunal in Windhoek over a land dispute. While the dispute was primarily about allegedly discriminatory land reform laws and policies affecting citizens of Zimbabwe mainly, the manner in which the Zimbabwean Government reacted to the ruling suddenly raises questions about the protection of investments in the SADC region. The nagging question which this paper seeks to address is, “is the SADC dispute settlement regime as currently provided for in Article 32 of the Declaration and Treaty of SADC and the subsequent Protocol on Trade adequate to guarantee investor protection in light of the aftermath of the Campbell decision?” In an attempt to address the question, this paper takes a closer look at the NAFTA Chapter 11 Investment protection provisions and compares them with their SADC counterparts.