In its issue No. 253 of December 2015, the monthly Law Review Droit & Patrimoine dedicates a special publication to the new OHADA Uniform Act organizing collective proceedings for wiping off debts.

This new Uniform Act adopted on September 10, 2015 in Grand Bassam, Côte d'Ivoire amends the UA of April 10, 1998 and brings in the following innovations:

• Establishment of a simplified conciliation procedure for preventive settlement, administration of companies facing difficulties and liquidation of assets which is suitable to small size companies;
• Shortening of deadlines and duration of collective proceedings;
• Establishment of a legal framework to regulate the activities of legal representatives;
• Establishment of a “new money” privilege for those who grant new loans to companies facing difficulties to facilitate their rescue and redress;
• Clarification of creditors ranking;
• Establishment of a new cross-border insolvency regime based on the UNCITRAL Model Law.

The New UA which was published in the OHADA Official Gazette on September 25 will enter into force on December, 24, 2015. “The new UA carries hope” commented the Permanent Secretary of OHADA in the publication; “The hope of a new day dawning on the prevention and treatment of economic difficulties of companies in Africa, the hope carried by a law which today better than yesterday, contributes to the strengthening of the economic fabric and effectively supports economic growth in African states.”

The Special Issue, with the foreword by Professor Dorothé C. Sossa, Permanent Secretary of OHADA, is titled “Modernization of the OHADA Uniform Act on collective proceedings” and has received contributions mostly from experts who assisted the Organization in the revision process of the Uniform Act.

The publication has the following columns:

• A Foreword. By Professor Dorothé C. Sossa, Permanent Secretary of OHADA;
• Prevention procedures in the revised UA on Collective Proceedings: conciliation and preventive settlement. By Filiga Michel Sawadogo, Former Dean, former Rector, Professor of Law faculties, Professor, University of Ouaga II, Minister of Secondary and Higher Education, Burkina Faso;
• Better regulation of Company redress and liquidation procedures. By Mamadou Konate, Attorney, Associates Founder of the Law Firm, JurifisConsult, Bamako, Mali;
• Procedures suitable for “small” businesses: simplified procedures. By Bakary Diallo, Doctor of Law, Lawyer at the Paris Bar;
• Private international law of the OHADA uniform Act. By Laurence-Caroline Henry, Advocate General at the Cour de Cassation, University Professor, “insolvency” Expert of the French Government at UNCITRAL, and Jean-Luc Vallens, Magistrate, Former Associate Professor at the Universities of Strasbourg and Paris, “insolvency” Expert of the French Government at UNCITRAL;
• Debtors in the revised UA: the modernization of the insolvency law in continuity. By Philippe Roussel Galle, Professor at the University of Paris Descartes - Sorbonne Paris Cité, Member of CEDAG;
• Better protection of creditors and contractors. By Pierre Crocq, Professor at the University of Panthéon-Assas, Director of the College of Law, Director of the Pierre Raynaud Institute of Judicial Studies;
• Better regulation of legal representatives, for a more efficient procedure. By Alain Fénéon, Honorary Advocate of the Paris Bar, Arbitrator-Mediator;

This special issue is the fourth of its kind on OHADA Law published by the Law Review Droit & Patrimoine, a scientific magazine dedicated to information concerning property law and its actors. Previous publications focused on the Uniform Act of 15 December 2010 organizing securities (Dr. & Patr. No. 197, November 2010), the Uniform Act of 15 December 2010 relating to general commercial law (Dr. & Patr. No.201, March 2011), and the Uniform Act of 30 January 2014 relating to commercial companies and economic interest group (Dr. Patr. No. 239, September 2014).

More information at www.droit-patrimoine.fr

To contact the Review: ltoury@lamy.fr