A special issue of the ICSID Review – Foreign Investment Law Journal focused on Africa's contribution to ICSID and investor-State dispute settlement is now available online.
With contributions from a wide range of experts, the special issue examines the role played by representatives of African States in 
creating the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes and the ICSID Convention, the seminal cases in which African countries participated as respondents and claimants, and the innovations taking place in investment rule making on the African continent today.
Contributions include:
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Olabisi D Akinkugbem, Assistant Professor at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, demonstrates how the involvement of African States in ICSID disputes has generated opportunities for the clarification and development of ICSID jurisprudence in Reverse Contributors? African State Parties, ICSID and the Development of International Investment Law.
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Francis N Botchway, Professor of Law at Qatar University College of Law, discusses consent to arbitration under the ICSID Convention through a detailed analysis of African investment treaties, contracts and legislation in Consent to Arbitration: African States' Practice.
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Hamed El-Kady, International Investment Policy Officer at UNCTAD, and Mustaqeem De Gama, Counsellor at the South African Mission to the World Trade Organization, United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, demonstrate how African countries are taking an active approach in the formulation of their international investment commitments. As explained in The Reform of the International Investment Regime: An African Perspective, "Africa is becoming a laboratory for innovative and sustainable development-oriented investment policymaking."
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Matthew Happold, Professor of Public International Law at the University of Luxembourg, notes that while discussions concerning a multilateral investment court are ongoing, such a mechanism might already be available for West African States in the form of the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Investor–State Dispute Settlement using the ECOWAS Court of Justice: An Analysis and Some Proposals outlines how the ECOWAS Court of Justice can already deal with a variety of investor–State disputes.
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Won Kidane, Associate Professor of Law at the Seattle University School of Law, describes investment arbitration as a ritualized activity— in other words a cultural practice—in The Culture of Investment Arbitration: An African Perspective.
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Makane Moïse Mbengue, Professor of International Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Geneva and Affiliate Professor at Sciences Po Paris School of Law, sets out the longstanding contribution of African countries to the development of the international investment regime. Africa's Voice in the Formation, Shaping and Redesign of International Investment Law follows this thread to the present, including a discussion of the current negotiations for an Investment Protocol within the African Union.
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Marie-Andrée Ngwe, President of the Centre de Médiation et d'Arbitrage du GICAM, and Marion Deligny Malchair, doctoral candidate in law at the Université de Lorraine, note that ICSID disputes involving African States are statistically more likely to be settled amicably. La propension des Etats africains à résoudre leurs litiges d'investissement à l'amiable reflects on potential underlying reasons for this trend, while also discussing the use of conciliation and mediation as methods of resolving investment disputes more broadly.
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Uché Ewelukwa Ofodile, EJ Ball Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas School of Law, is one of several authors to analyze cases in which African States participated. In particular, African States, Investor–State Arbitration and the ICSID Dispute Resolution System: Continuities, Changes and Challenges looks at cases in which decisions were reached on the merits.
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Antonio R Parra, former Deputy Secretary-General of ICSID, surveys the role of African States in setting the foundations of the ICSID in The Participation of African States in the Making of the ICSID Convention.
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Mohamed S Abdel Wahab, Chair of Private International Law Department at Cairo University, concludes by surveying how an increase of investment in the African Continent has been accompanied by significant growth and innovative rule making. ICSID's Relevance for Africa: A Symbiotic Bond Beyond Time also emphasizes the uniqueness of the ICSID system in offering effective dispute resolution solutions for disputes involving African parties.
Opening remarks are provided by Prof. Mbengue, who also served as guest editor to the Review ('Somethin' ELSE': African Discourses on ICSID and on ISDS—An Introduction) and concluding remarks by Meg Kinnear, Secretary-General of ICSID, and Paul-Jean Le Cannu, Team Leader and Legal Counsel at ICSID (ICSID and African States Leading International Investment Law Reform).
The Special Issue on Africa is available at: https://academic.oup.com/icsidreview/issue/34/2