COMMERCIAL MEDIATION AS A REMEDY FOR CORRUPT JUSTICE IN SECURING THE BUSINESS CLIMATE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Abstract

Since their independences, in most of sub-Saharan African countries the administration of justice has suffered from a wickedness that is eating away at it and compromising the judicial security necessary for economic development: corruption. Corruption has many faces and form but one of the worst forms is judicial corruption, because it is really a break the development of our countries and even for the sub-region. In the face of corruption, commercial mediation is proposed as a remedy for the countries of the sub-region. Mediation is an alternative method of conflict resolution where the parties try to find a solution to a conflict on their own, under the supervision of a third party: the mediator. This alternative dispute resolution method excludes any possibility of judicial corruption or financial domination by one party over another, simply because the mediator has no role to play in favour of one party to the detriment of another. This definitively excludes any intention or possibility of corruption Rather, the objective of mediation is to re-establish lasting and quality communication between the parties because, free from all the misunderstandings that caused the conflict, they can even after the dispute consider better relations, which is crucial in the business world. Commercial mediation offers a framework of trust, since the parties are freed from intimidating legal proceedings with judges and lawyers, a considerable time saver, since the parties do not bother with long trials, an ideal framework for commercial collaboration, since no one loses out but also an infallible remedy against corruption, since no party has an interest in influencing the mediator, whose role is not to agree with one party or another but rather to lead them to a solution that suits them all.