L’adhésion de la République Démocratique du Congo à l'OHADA et son apport mitigé sur la capacité juridique de la femme mariée en matière professionnelle

Abstract

In Congolese law, the legal capacity of the married women is subjected to certain limitations. These restrictions include, notably, the exercise of professional activities for which marital authorization is a legal requirement. This is why some consider the adherence of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to OHADA as an opportunity in favour of the married woman, claiming that all provisions of domestic law clinging on the legal incapacity of the latter are automatically repealed because supposedly contrary to the uniform Acts, and in this case the uniform Act relating to general commercial law (AUDCG). This paper attempts to meticulously analyse the alleged contribution resulting from the OHADA law and manages to demonstrate that the status of the married woman in professional matters from the standpoint of OHADA has indeed not changed. A first step in that direction could have been for the AUDCG to explicitly recognize the married woman's ability to freely engage into trade. Unfortunately the corresponding provision only deals with the status of the spouse of the trader, thus leaving the issue of legal capacity of the married woman on commercial matters to the national laws of each of the member states. Even though some progress in commercial law may be recognized, this could not cover other professions governed by national legislation and that are, consequently, out of the scope of the Uniform Acts. Hence, a genuine reform in order to release the married women from the marital authorization regime is a necessity.