Defects of English Rules of Contractual Interpretation and Their Challenges for African Businesses

What is it about?

The uncritical transplantation of English law by African legislators and their failure to adapt its concepts and values to suit the idiosyncratic conditions in Africa arguably contribute to the perpetuation of English law’s hegemony in Anglophone Africa. It is argued that the overdependence on English law and courts to resolve contractual disputes by African businesspeople is not necessarily due to any alleged stellar qualities of English law, but because of the colonial influence as well as the exaggeration of the competence of the English legal system. This article discusses some of the overlooked imperfections of the English rules of contractual interpretation, which although reinforce their global attractiveness, nonetheless impact negatively on African businesses. It proposes an urgent discontinuance of the addictive consumption of English law in Anglophone Africa which would ultimately require African legislators to craft autochthonous legal processes, implement a conscious change in legal education, interpretation, and adaptation of English contract rules through the Afrocentric paradigm.

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