Africanacity of International Investment Law: A Reflection on Investment Agreements in Africa

In recent times, we have been witnessing the re-making of international investment law (IIL) architect maiden from Africa. The reforms shift the IIL paradigm by establishing adequate policy space to the host state, reiterating state sovereignty and, significantly, introducing obligations imposed on the foreign investors. Alongside these reforms, Africans are persistently negating the speculative imbalanced international investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system by suggesting local alternatives. These reforms can be traced to the Pan African Investment Code of 2016, which shapes the African IIL agenda. Thus, this monograph discusses Africa’s recent surge of reforms on IIL which transform the traditional regime. These commendable reforms give African states an opportunity to “regulate” IIL and guard their own interests. Yet the reforms are already showing some signs of incoherence, particularly on the binding nature of investment treaty models and on ISDS mechanisms, which may potentially negate the thrust of what this monograph dubs as the “Africanacity” of IIL. Keywords: Africanacity, International Investment law, Investment Treaty Model, ISDS, RECs, Sub-regional. DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/113-01 Publication date:September 30th 202

De utopías y desengaños : la novelística divisionaria de Rodrigo Royo

This article analyses the three divisionary novels by Rodrigo Royo, veteran of the Spanish Blue Division: ¡Guerra! Historia de la vida de Luis Pablos (1944); El sol y la nieve (1956); and El Sepulturero (1976). I investigate the shift from Falangist idealism to disillusion and its reflection in the novelization of the war experience in the Eastern Front. Specifically, I focus on the changes that the characterization of the figure of the hero suffers on these works: Luis Pablos, the archetypal Falangist hero of ¡Guerra! (1944), whose heroism is based on his warrior spirit, his idealism and the contempt for danger and death; José Luis, the protagonist of El sol y la nieve (1956), a hero which is still faithful to the dogmas of Falangism, but who is defined by his spiritual values ?solidarity, honour and moral rectitude?; and finally Julián Rovira, the tragic hero of El Sepulturero (1976), who change his vital, politic and historical defeat into the key of his moral victory

Memorias incómodas: la División Azul en la literatura española contemporánea

This article analyses a series of contemporary historical novels that focusses the narration on the characters’ experiences when fighting –as soldiers of the Spanish División Azul and alongside the German’s army– communism in the Soviet Union. Furthermore, it concentrates specifically on the different ways the characters’ right wing and fascist ideology are portrayed taking into account the current theoretical approach on Historical Memory that revisits events that took place during the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship. The fictionalization of those characters that joined the Spanish División Azul in the novels written by Almudena Grandes, Juan Manuel de Prada, Pío Moa, Ignacio del Valle y Lorenzo Silva shows that in some authors there is a clear Manichaean narrative strategy while other ones opt for a more critical and plural approach. The latter is open to a metanarrative deliberation on the creation of conflicting and disruptive memories in today’s cultural and literary Spain.El artículo se centra en un grupo de novelas históricas contemporáneas que relatan las vivencias de unos personajes que durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial se alistaron en la División Azul para luchar contra el comunismo en la Unión Soviética, al lado del ejército de la Alemania nazi. En el texto se indagan las maneras de representar a estos personajes de ideología derechista y falangista en el contexto actual de la recuperación de la memoria histórica acerca de episodios relacionados con la Guerra Civil española y la dictadura franquista. La novelización de los personajes divisionarios en las obras de Almudena Grandes, Juan Manuel de Prada, Pío Moa, Ignacio del Valle y Lorenzo Silva adopta en algunos casos un andamiaje maniqueo, mientras que en otros refleja una postura más crítica y plural, abierta a la reflexión metanarrativa acerca de la escritura de unas memorias conflictivas e incómodas en el presente contexto literario y cultural español

Striking a balance between community norms and human rights : the continuing struggle of the East African Court of Justice

The article exposes the difficult position in which the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) finds itself when faced with matters containing human rights allegations, which the Court is barred from deciding as such. The EACJ is often called upon to draw a line between what might constitute a human rights case and a claim relating to an East African Community (EAC) norm which is not barred under article 27(2) of the East African Community Treaty. As the main judicial mechanism of the EAC, the EACJ is primarily mandated to interpret and apply EAC law, of which human rights form part. Despite the existing limitations, the EACJ has clearly laid down its position that it cannot ‘abdicate’ exercising its interpretive mandate, even if a matter before it contains allegations of human rights violations. In doing so, the EACJ has indirectly protected human rights in the EAC through other forms of cause of actions, such as the rule of law and good governance. This contribution advances two key arguments: First, the EAC Treaty contains human rights norms that the EACJ cannot escape from interpreting. Second, due to the continuing restrictions in adjudicating human rights, as well as the existing human rights norms in the EAC Treaty, the EACJ is trapped in precarious attempts to balance the advancing of EAC norms, on the one hand, and adhering to the Treaty restrictions in adjudicating human rights, on the other.This article is based on the author’s LLD thesis prepared at the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria.http://reference.sabinet.co.za/sa_epublication/ju_ahrlj2016-04-30am2016Centre for Human Right

Javier Marías por Javier Marías: autoficción y metanarrativa en Negra espalda del tiempo y Los enamoramientos

This article analysis the characteristics of the autofictional genre in Javier Marías’ novel Los enamoramientos (2011). Bear in mind the category of the model reader created by the text; it is possible to determine a unvarying author’s search for meta-fictional isotopes. These isotopes take us to his previous essays, novels and commentary of his own novels’ narrative strategies. The auto-referential strategy highlights even more the author’s interference with his fictional text and the default position of the deconstruction of the postmodern ‘I’. The author creates a clear relationship between Los enamoramientos (2011) and his ‘false novel’ Negra espalda del tiempo (1998): a hybrid text in which the author plays with the concepts of fictionality and autobiography, creating a tension between the fictional and the empirical world.Este artículo indaga en los rasgos autoficcionales de la novela Los enamoramientos (2011) de Javier Marías. A través de la figura de un lector modelo, se puede apreciar una constante búsqueda de isótopos metaficcionales por parte del autor que devuelve a la novela a estrategias narrativas puestas en práctica en su novelística anterior, ensayos y comentarios sobre sus propias novelas. Este juego autorreferencial incide aún más en la investigación sobre las interferencias de la figura del autor en el texto y el posicionamiento en que se sitúa la deconstrucción del yo posmoderno, estableciéndose una clara relación con la “falsa novela” Negra espalda del tiempo (1998), un relato ficticio y autobiográfico al mismo tiempo, en que el autor juega con la tensión establecida entre los mundos novelesco y empírico

El desencanto en la novelística divisionaria desde los años 50 hasta los 70

This article analyses the novels of Blue Division which were written between the 50s and the 70s by war veterans. They were focusing on the showing of authors and characters’ disillusion, and on the reasons of the arising of this frustration feeling amongst the most purist activists of Spanish Falange. The frustrated idealism of the authors and their protagonists led those novelists to an evident intimate retreat, whose effects will be analysed in the study of the novels of Rodrigo Royo, Tomás Salvador, Carlos María Ydígoras and Eleuterio Paniagua

El pluralismo en la narrativa actual: Alfons Cervera y sus voces fugitivas

This article analizes the representation of the historical memory of the Spanish post-Civil War in five novels of Alfons Cervera (1995-2005), republished with the title of Las voces fugitivas in 2013, paying attention to contemporary changes in the literary discourse. This change is based on the rupture of the Manichean pattern when portraying the events of the post-Civil War, expressed in Cervera’s novels through multiple points of views and narrative voices that collaborate in the creation of plural and polyphonic novels.Este estudio analiza en las cinco novelas de Alfons Cervera publicadas entre 1995 y 2005, y que con el título Las voces fugitivas han sido publicadas en 2013, la representación de la memoria histórica de la posguerra española a partir del cambio discursivo literario. Este cambio se asienta en la ruptura del patrón maniqueo a la hora de representar los acontecimientos de la posguerra, cuyo reflejo en la narrativa de Cervera se expresa a través de múltiples puntos de vista y voces narrativas, los cuales colaboran en la elaboración de unos relatos plurales y polifónico

Leer poesía. Lo leve, lo grave, lo opaco de Alicia Genovese.

Leer poesía. Lo leve, lo grave, lo opaco.Alicia Genovese, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Buenos Aires, 2011

An Appraisal of the Functioning and Effectiveness of the East African Court of Justice

This contribution reflects on the functioning of the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) and judges its effectiveness by assessing the Court's role of ensuring adherence to, the application of and compliance with the East African Community (EAC) Treaty. The EACJ became operational on 30 November 2001, following its inauguration after the swearing in of its judges and the Registrar. During this initial stage of the Court's existence there were indications that the EACJ was failing to stamp its authority on the activities of the Community. The main reason for this failure is the existence of gaps in the EAC Treaty, which prevent the EACJ from effectively discharging its functions. In addition, as shown in this article, the EACJ has been delivering judgements on the grounds of doubtful authority which has gradually diminished the Court's legitimacy. Given its relevance to the EAC, this may therefore be the time to audit the EACJ's functioning and reflect on whether it is moving in the right direction. The hypothesis of this article is that the EACJ has been struggling to establish its authority in the region, mostly in the areas of human rights, the rule of law and good governance. In tracing its history so far it is easy to discern its strategic attempts at judicial law-making to arrogate to itself the role of the protector of human rights. While it is acknowledged that the EACJ is increasingly receiving cases of a divergent nature, most of these cases have had little influence on the integration project or are outside the scope of its mandate.   &nbsp