Africa

The Chagos Archive

Online collection of documents, maps, photographs and videos recording the history of the people of the Chagos Islands (also known as the British Indian Ocean Territory, or BIOT), their exile when the US-UK military base was set up on Diego Garcia, and the resulting legal disputes. The archive includes US and UK official documents; UN documents; documents from court cases; birth, death and marriage records; material from Chagossian organisations; literature about the Chagos Archipelago its people; and material from the national archives of Mauritius and the Seychelles.

The Chagos Archipelago

Website about the Chagos Archipelago, or British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). Covers the deportation of the Chagossians; the administration of the BIOT; British policy regarding the archipelago; and disputes regarding sovereignty, citizenship, the Chagossians’ right of abode and other matters. The BIOT Administration section includes a substantial collection of BIOT legislation.

British Indian Ocean Territory

Website of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) Administration. BIOT, also known as the Chagos Archipelago, is a British overseas territory in the Indian Ocean. The site has information about the US-UK military base and the history and governance of the archipelago. It provides a few issues of the BIOT Official Gazette and has an Ordinances page that was under construction at the time of writing. There is also information about British government policy, environmental matters and scientific studies.

Gazettes.Africa

Free online versions of official government gazettes from various African countries, compiled into one website, hosted by Laws.Africa and AfricanLII. The gazettes contain important government information, for example governmental notices and legislation such as acts and bills. The gazettes are in PDF form and are searchable by country and date, with new gazettes being updated on the website continually. The collections vary from country to country, and there are gazettes from 22 jurisdictions as well as the East African Community and ECOWAS.

Association of African Law Library and Information Professionals

The Association of African Law Library and Information Professionals connects African legal information professionals and legal information institutions across Africa. Their aim is to support legal research and promote legal information awareness across the continent by building up a network of individual and institutional members. The website contains information about the association and their aims, membership information and a blog with the latest news about AfLLIP, as well as the latest developments in legal information across Africa.

Afriwise

Afriwise is a subscription website providing legal information on a range of African countries including laws, regulations, legal news and guidance. Topics covered include employment, immigration, competition, environmental, intellectual property and taxation law. 

ECOWAS Law

Law section of the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) website, focusing on the Treaty of Lagos, 1975, which established this 15-member regional group, and other official documents. The purpose of ECOWAS is to promote economic integration in the region and create an economic and trading union. A revised 1993 version of the Treaty of Lagos is provided, along with regulations, communiques, decisions and other ECOWAS official documents.

A Comparative Analysis of Restorative Justice Practices in Africa

This online guide looks at restorative justice as practised in six African countries: South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana and Rwanda. The guide was written by Julena Jumbe Gabagambi who is Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Iringa, Tanzania and was published in 2018 (and updated in 2024) on the Globalex website and made freely available by the Hauser Global Law School Program at the New York University School of Law. There is background information on restorative justice in Africa and its treatment in the legal literature.

OHADA: Organization for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa

This is the official website of OHADA. The main part of the site provides the OHADA Treaty and OHADA uniform acts in English and French; it also has recent cases from the Cour Commune de Justice et d’Arbitrage and legal commentary (‘Doctrine’), but these are in French only. A larger repository of OHADA documentation can be found in the Digital Library: all issues of the OHADA Journal Officiel (Official Gazette), cases from 2010 onwards, uniform acts and other material, all in French.

African Legal Information Institute

The African Legal Information Institute (AfricanLII) makes available treaties, cases, resolutions, decisions, reports and other publications of African regional organisations. It also provides access to legislation and cases from 16 African countries, via its search facility. The home page has links to regional and national African websites. AfricanLII is a project of the Democratic Governance and Rights Unit (DGRU) at the University of Cape Town law faculty.

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