Cybercrimes have been on the rise in the oil and gas sectors of the Middle East and Africa. Confidential data preserved at enormous cost have been lost due to the disruption of operational technologies and critical infrastructure. Countries in the Middle East and Africa such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Tanzania, and Nigeria have not effectively addressed cybercrime in the oil and gas industry, leading to a halt in operations, enormous financial loss, and threat to international energy security. Apart from addressing cybercrimes in the sector, oil and gas contracts will need to be revisited to address cybercrimes in the industry.

The State adopted the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) in 2018 to consolidate the International Refugee Protection Regime (IRPR). Drawing on International Relations (IR) theories and international law, different perspectives can be taken on the nature of the GCR and the IRPR, and their legal and non-legal relationship. The lack of a universally accepted definition for the IRPR allows for various interpretations, ranging from narrow positivism to broad global governance and self-organisation approaches. Similarly, the legal status of the GCR can be seen as non-law, soft law, or fully binding law depending on the criteria used. Applying realist, liberal, and constructivist theories, this article argues that the GCR’s anticipated legal and political development and its impact on the IRPR will be influenced by the chosen IR paradigm, reflecting different views on the rule of international law and power dynamics among stakeholders. By examining the case study of Kenya as a host of a protracted refugee operation, the article provides a practical illustration of how different IR lenses offer divergent perspectives on international burden and responsibility sharing in the Global South. This analysis aims to provide a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the complex relationship between the GCR and the IRPR.

Food and agriculture were largely treated as exceptions from the GATT disciplines. The GATT Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) initiated a long-term process of trade liberalisation in agriculture. Food security is among the objectives of the AoA. Trade liberalisation in agriculture, the removal of protectionism, and tariffs in agricultural trade are envisioned as food security enhancing. However, although African countries embraced the WTO AoA, they have failed to liberalise their agricultural trade in line with the disciplines of the AoA. African countries have missed out on the benefits of agricultural liberalisation, among them being food security. As a result, Africa’s agricultural trade is anaemic and, coupled with her low agricultural productivity, Africa is plagued by hunger.

The arbitrator has a right of lien on the award at common law. The English Arbitration Act 1996 incorporates this right. Nigeria’s Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1988 (ACA) was, however, modelled after the UNCITRAL Model Arbitration Law. Thus, unlike its English counterpart it had no provision for an arbitrator’s exercise of lien on the award. A lien is, however, an effective and practical means of securing the arbitrator’s fees, especially as parties may be disincentivised from following through with the arbitration process on account of being required to provide advance funding adequate to settle the arbitrator’s entire fees. This article critically examines the ACA, considering the school of thought that its section 26(4) implicitly repealed the arbitrator’s common law right of lien on the award, alongside section 54 of Nigeria’s Arbitration and Mediation Act (AMA) 2023 now expressly providing for the arbitrator’s right to lien on the award. Based on a comparative analysis of statutory provisions and the common law, a core argument is that the arbitrator’s common law right to lien on the award as security for fees remains valid.

There is no doubt that the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) strikes the world with unparalleled disruption in economic and business activities. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have dealt a serious blow to businesses, households, individuals, and revenue generation by governments across the globe with Nigeria being no exception. As a result, Nigeria introduced certain tax measures through the Emergency Economic Stimulus Bill 2020 to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on taxpayers but these measures are inadequate and in some ways impracticable. The measure includes a temporary relief to companies and individuals to alleviate the adverse financial consequences of a slowdown in economic activities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The article argues that it is clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically reduced business activities and the Bill does nothing to reduce or remove the existing tax burden but simply postpones the same to a later date. This negates section 14(2)(b) of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 as amended which provides that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. This raises a critical question as to whether revenue generation by the Nigerian government is more important than preventing hardships and reducing the burden of Nigerian taxpayers whose welfare the government has sworn to protect through the Constitution. The implication is that the Nigerian government needs to revise its tax regime encompassing incentives such as tax credits, write-offs, and tax holidays in a bid to provide adequate relief to the taxpayers pending the eradication of the pandemic and a return to economic stability.

Increasingly, popular participation has come to be regarded globally as a best practice in constitution-making. This article examines the different forms of popular participation in the most recent constitution-making processes in francophone Africa and its possible impact on constitutionalism. As will be shown, the dominant forms continue to be symbolic. Moreover, we argue that while it cannot be said conclusively that a high level of popular participation in constitution-making automatically enhances the prospects for constitutionalism, there is evidence to suggest that the dominant symbolic form of popular participation has had a negative impact on the legitimacy, constitutional stability, and the entrenchment of the core elements of constitutionalism in francophone Africa.

Land is an essential natural resource endowed by nature and deposited all over the world for the survival and well-being of humanity. In Nigeria, land control is vested in each federation state's Governor. The Federal Government controls the ownership and exploitation of mineral deposits irrespective of where the mineral deposits may be located. There is often contention about the rights of individual citizens, families, and communities in land ownership. The question of trespassing has often been a subject of litigation in Nigerian courts for decades with the advent of commerce and trade. The primary objective of this article is to examine land ownership, land allocation, and how the certificate of occupancy and Governor's consent affect land ownership, lease, and purchase of land in Nigeria. This article proffers solutions to issues arising in Nigerians’ right to ownership of land. The methodology adopted in this article is essentially doctrinal, using primary sources such as law reports and statutes. The article also refers to secondary sources such as law textbooks, newspapers, and internet materials. It recommends comprehensive reforms toward easing land acquisition and minimising the incidence of trespass to land in Nigeria.

In Part 1 of this study, the existing literature on eyewitness misidentification evidence as a cause of wrongful convictions, as well as adversarial safeguards upon which criminal justice systems rely to identify errors in fact-finding, are reviewed. In Part 2, a similar investigation is conducted of improperly applied and faulty forensic expert evidence in criminal trials in the comparator countries, and how such evidence contributes to legal and root causes of injustice. Parallels are drawn to the adversarial system as it functions in South Africa and predictions are offered regarding the possibility that in South Africa too, the reliance on questionable expert evidence and the sometimes over-reliance on valid expert evidence may lead to wrongful convictions. Worldwide, much effort has been invested in developing admissibility criteria for expert forensic evidence. In the United States of America, for example, more than 100 years of admissibility jurisprudence has been dedicated to developing admissibility standards that would filter out unreliable evidence. Yet our investigation reveals admissibility criteria have had less success than expected. We also investigate the abilities and inabilities of cross-examination and acquired defence expertise to reveal errors in forensic evidence. The article concludes with critical commentary on the way forward for the South African criminal justice system.