AN APPRAISAL OF CRIMINAL LIABILITIES FOR BUSINESS OFFENCES UNDER OHADA LAW AND THE PENAL LAWS IN CAMEROON
Keywords:
Criminal Liabilities, Business Offences, Penal Laws, OHADA Uniform Acts, Cameroon.Abstract
This article sets out to explore the criminal liabilities for business offences under the OHADA Law and the penal laws in Cameroon. Cameroon, being a founding member of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Laws in Africa (OHADA) is a signatory to the OHADA treaty, and therefore, bound to observe the tenets of the Treaty. This treaty provides for the adoption of Uniform Acts which will enable the Organization to regulate specific areas of business law in the member states. As a matter of fact, the main objective of the Treaty was to harmonise business law in member states through the elaboration and adoption of simple, modern and common rules adapted to their economies by setting up appropriate judicial procedures. The treaty calls for the elaboration of laws known as “Uniform Acts? that are directly applicable in member states notwithstanding any provision of domestic laws as stated in Article 10 of the OHADA Treaty. Despite efforts made by the OHADA Treaty in clearly outlining business offences and liabilities, it is left to individual States to provide sanctions. It is against these backdrops that Cameroon has adopted penal laws in a bit to curtailed criminal liabilities of corporations. This paper analysis the statutory bases for corporate criminal liability with specific regards to the amended Penal Code provisions. The amended Penal Code of 12 July 2016 is much appreciated for the incorporation of corporate criminal liability into the law, but it is the candid opinion of this writer that the code has failed to embrace evolving specific business offenses. This is the intricacy of this article. The article concludes with vigorous recommendations which if effectively implemented will go a long way to enhance business security.
References
1. Fuah Kwanga C.,(2018), “Corporate Criminal Liability In Cameroon: The Dawn of A New Era Commonwealth Law Review Journal (CLRJ) Volume 4 June 2018, P270.
2. These include; UA Relating to General Commercial Law, UA Relating to Commercial Companies and Economic Interest Groups, UA Organizing Securities, UA Organizing Collective Proceedings for Clearing of Debts, UA Organizing Simplified Recovery Procedure and Enforcement Measures, UA on Arbitration, UA of 24 March 2000 on the Harmonization of the Accounts of Enterprises, UA on the Contract for the Carriage of Good by Road, and Arbitration Rules of the Common Court of Justice and Arbitration.
3. Penal code (Law no. 65 -LF-24 of 12th November, 1965 and Law no. 67 -LF-1 of 12th June, 1967).
4. (2010) 1CCLR 14 p1.
5. www.ohada.org (15 June 2020).
6. Since the beginning of the current year, two OHADA member countries have, when updating their penal codes , aligned their criminal provisions with the OHADA Law. By Law No. 2017 -10 of March 2017, amending and supplementing Law No. 61 -27 of 15 July 1961 on the Penal Code, Niger provided in Part IV -bis, starting from Article 377.1 to 377.43, for sanctions relati ng to offences under the OHADA Law. More recently, and by its Law No. 01 on the Penal Code promulgated on 8 May 2017, Chad also inserted Book 7, Articles 473 to 517, in its new Penal Code which deals with penalties applicable to offences provided for in O HADA Uniform Acts. Niger and Chad thus join the list of States which have already put their domestic criminal law in line with OHADA Uniform Acts, namely Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Guinea and Senegal.
7. Article 98 states that “All companies shall have a legal personality with effect from the date of registration in the Trade and Personal Property Rights Register, except otherwise provided in this Uniform Act”.
8. (341) NE 2d 223 (NY) 1975.
9. (1967)2 NMLR.
10. {(1909)215US50}.
11. {(1952)20NLR96}. Cite this Article Pefela Gildas Nyugha . An Appraisal of Criminal Liabilities for Business Offences under OHADA Law and the Penal Laws in Cameroon. National Journal of Criminal Law. 2020; 3(2): 17–21p.
