Cameroon is a Party State signatory of the Treaty of Port Louis (Mauritius) of 17th October 1993 on the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa, and amended on the 17th October 2008 in Quebec City (Canada). This Treaty aims at protecting investment through legal and judicial security of economic activities in its member States.
This treaty is also known as OHADA Treaty because it created the Organisation for the Harmonization of Business Law (OHADA), which includes a Conference of Heads of States and Governments, a Council of Ministers, a Common Court of Justice and Arbitration, a Permanent Secretariat and a Regional Higher School of Magistracy.
The Conference of Heads of States and Governments meets, when need arises, to examine issues relating to the functioning of OHADA and having been submitted to it by the Council of Ministers.
The Council of Ministers, which comprises Ministers in charge of justice and those in charge of Finance of the member States, is the standard setting body of the Organisation.
To date, it has adopted nine uniform acts, dealing respectively with General Commercial Law, Law of Commercial Companies and Economic Interest Groups, Sureties, the Simplified recovery procedures and enforcement, Collective Ways and the Procedure for Discharging Liabilities, Arbitration, Accounting Law, Land Transport of Goods and finally, the law of cooperative societies.
The Cameroon Ministry of Finance, in its capacity as statutory member, is regularly represented at these meetings, as well as those of the Committee of Experts which is the instance for preparation of Council decisions.
The Common Court of Justice and Arbitration (CCJA), is the cornerstone of the OHADA mechanism for, insofar as there is no real legal standardization without jurisdictional standardization, it is this supranational jurisdiction which is charged with ensuring the uniform interpretation and application of OHADA texts in the party States.
It has a triple function jurisdictional, consultative and administration for arbitrations.
In its jurisdictional, it is the Supreme Court of the member States in the OHADA law, disputes in the application of this law taking place in member States mentioned above, and pending appeal.
With regards to its advisory function, the CCJA can be consulted by the member States, the national courts of first instance and appeal, hearing cases involving the application of the OHADA law, the Permanent Secretariat or by the Council of Ministers and the Assembly of Heads of States and Governments for all matters concerning the interpretation or application of the OHADA Treaty and its subordinate legislation (Uniform Acts, Regulations, Decisions, etc. …).
In its function of administering arbitrations, the CCJA does not decide by itself on disputes submitted to it in arbitration, but has an Arbitration Rule on the basis of which it (CCJA) will implement the CCJA arbitration clause by the constitution of the arbitration tribunal to resolve, under its control the dispute before it.
The Regional High School of Magistracy (ERSUMA) based in Porto Novo (Benin) whose mission is to ensure the perfecting and specialisation in business law, for magistrates, lawyers, notaries, bailiffs, clerks and other legal experts from the member States.
The Ministry of Finance regularly benefits from training for its senior staff.
The Permanent Secretariat of OHADA has its headquarters in Yaound├®, Cameroon, it assists the President of the Council of Ministers and its missions as executive body of OHADA have been refocused by the Treaty of Quebec which modified that of Port-Louis and has been in force since 21 March 2010.