Beyond Standard Setting: A Study of ILO Technical Cooperation on Regional Labor Law Reform in West and Central Africa

Abstract

This article considers the ILO's technical cooperation role, by studying the initiative undertaken within a number of countries within West and Central Africa to regulate labor relations at the transnational level through a broader, commercial harmonization re-regulatory project, the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (or OHADA after its French-language name, Organisation pour l'harmonisation en Afrique du droit des affaires). OHADA offers a unique and instructive case study, as it reflects a concrete, far-reaching example of regulatory governance promoting investor security through the institution of supra-national, rules-based, arbitral mechanisms through a legal standardization device. Through the form of uniform laws applicable across the OHADA territory, it is a traditional, hard-law, command and control model codification designed to attract investors on the basis that the legal regime provides stability despite real underlying constraints on the ground.

Keywords: International Labor Law, Law Reform, ILO, Cooperation, Central Africa, West Africa, OHADA, Investment, Decent Work, Workers' Rights