About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

29 U. Botswana L.J. 3 (2021)

handle is hein.journals/unbotslj29 and id is 1 raw text is: 3

The Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitration Agreements
and Awards under the New York Convention in Botswana: A Reappraisal
(Part 1)
Tecle Hagos Bahta*
ABSTRACT
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods play a significant role in the
settlement of commercial and investment disputes. Arbitration, in particular,
has been the most effective and efficient method for resolving disputes in
international commercial and investment transactions. The ease and simplicity
in the enforcement of arbitral awards across borders is notable in this respect.
The New York Convention has significantly been lubricating the wheels of the
system for cross-border mobility of arbitral awards in international business
transactions. The New York Convention sets out uniform standards for the
recognition and enforcement of international commercial and investment
arbitral awards. Botswana is a party to the New York Convention as of1977. In
acceding to the Convention, Botswana has entered three reservations, namely,
reciprocity, commercial and non-retroactivity. The non-retroactivity reservation
may no longer have an adverse effect. The reciprocity and commercial
reservation, however, have given rise to multiple enforcement regimes. Apart
from the reservations, some of the provisions of the New York Convention have
also been omitted and others inadequately captured in the implementing Act.
In this respect, the impact of the afore-cited reservations in the application
of the New York Convention in Botswana has been examined. In addition to
the reciprocity requirement, section 3(3) of the implementing Act requires that
an arbitral award from a convention state can be recognized and enforced in
Botswana only if that state recognizes and enforces arbitral awards made in
Botswana. It is submitted that this additional requirement may complicate the
enforcement of arbitral awards in Botswana. The far-reaching ramfications
thereof are dealt with in terms of the existing arbitral jurisprudence and
practice. The new developments and its trajectories apropos Article VII of the
*  LLB, LLM, AI Arb (Botswana), Senior Lecturer of Law, Department of Law, University of Botswana.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most