Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies: Founders' Day Lecture Series - Guest lecture by Professor Faizel Ismail*
The Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) Founders’ Day is an annual event which provides a platform for scholarly discourse and the exhibition of legal scholarship of outstanding academics. Over the years, guest lecturers have examined contemporary issues such as intellectual property, the role of the International Criminal Court, human rights, and constitutional imperatives.
The 2019 Founders’ Day Lecture titled Inclusivity and the Transformational Potentials of the AFCFTA for African Countries explores the potentials of regional trade within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The lecture provides a historical perspective of AfCFTA, discussing the roles and purposes of existing trade agreements such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The lecture interrogates the role of the AfCFTA and economic transformation and industrialisation in Africa, and provides insights into the inter-relationship between AfCFTA and effective democracy and good governance. The lecture also analyses the inextricable role of the private sector and stakeholders in pushing an all-inclusive process of negotiations arising from the AfCFTA agreements. It provides salient recommendations to African States, including the building of necessary institutions and development of a regulatory framework to ensure effective transition of the AfCFTA.
*Professor Ismail is the Director Designate of the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance and Adjunct Professor at the Centre of Comparative Law in Africa (CCLA), University of Cape Town, and a TIPS Research Fellow