Dr. Abubakri Yekini (Lagos State University): Enforcement of Jurisdiction Agreements in Nigeria

Private International Law in Africa

  • Date: May 10, 2021
  • Time: 02:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Location: online

About the speaker:

Dr. Abubakri Yekini is a Law Lecturer at Lagos State University (Lagos, Nigeria), where he teaches private international law and the Nigerian Legal System amongst others. He recently earned his Ph.D. from the Centre for Private International Law, University of Aberdeen, under the supervision of Professor Paul Beaumont and Professor Jonathan Fitchen. His Ph.D. thesis, which is forthcoming in the Hart Studies of Private International Law (2021), examines the Hague Judgments Convention and Commonwealth Model Law from a pragmatic perspective. Dr. Yekini was a Visiting Scholar at Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European, and Regulatory Procedural Law in 2019. His current research focuses on how and what Africa can learn from the harmonization projects of the Hague Conference on Private International Law and the European Union to drive the newly formed African Continental Free Trade Area.

About the topic:

Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa, with a GDP of $448 billion as of 2019. It is expected that Nigeria’s foreign trade in goods and services will also be boosted with its membership in the newly formed African Continental Free Trade Area. As a leading destination for foreign direct investments in Africa, foreign business entities would be interested in knowing the extent to which the Nigerian legal system protects and enforces contractual rights. Thus, Dr. Yekini's presentation would explore the underlying policies for the enforcement of jurisdiction agreements in Nigerian courts and how those policies have been applied in practice.

About the new virtual workshop series:

There is a growing interest in the study of private international law in Africa. In an environment of growing international transactions in both civil and commercial matters, private international law can play a significant role in Africa in addressing issues such as globalization, regional economic integration, immigration, etc. The series intends to discuss new scholarly work on private international law in Africa and advance solutions on how the current framework of that field can be improved on the continent.

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