Africa: Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration

The digital age has fundamentally altered how defamation and data privacy intersect, particularly on social media platforms where reputational harm can stem from both false publications and unauthorized use of personal information.

The new Mass Media Proclamation 1238/2021 has introduced significant changes to the previous legal regime governing the media. The law has introduced commendable legal provisions that provide greater protection and space for media freedom as well as more flexibility with regard to investments in the media industry. In this brief commentary, we will provide the major changes made in the new Mass Media proclamation briefly.

On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court of Nigeria (the “Supreme Court”) delivered a landmark decision in the case of Emma Elegbe & Anor v. HP International Schools Limited & 3 Ors...

Revolut’s co-founder and CEO, Nik Storonsky, is facing a claim in London’s High Court from yacht brokerage Cecil Wright & Partners over the purchase of the 102-metre, reportedly €350 million, superyacht Nixie. Cecil Wright filed its claim in July, alleging that it introduced the yacht and was the “effective cause” of the transaction despite ultimately being excluded from the sale.

For most of the history of civil procedure, a person who stood wholly outside a dispute, who had done no wrong and owed no duty, could not be drawn into a separate action brought solely to extract information from them. This foundational principle, known as the mere witness rule, protected individuals from being compelled to provide information in disputes to which they were not a party.

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence in arbitration raises fundamental questions about the legitimacy of arbitral awards when AI assists in decision-making. Two landmark cases examine whether extensive AI reliance by arbitrators constitutes impermissible delegation of their adjudicative function, and whether existing legal frameworks can adequately address these novel challenges.

When a patient discovers years after surgery that medical negligence caused their injury, can they still bring a claim? This article examines Nigeria's limitation laws for medical negligence cases, exploring the critical gap between when harm occurs and when patients reasonably discover its cause, and whether current legal frameworks adequately protect those with latent injuries.

The Western Cape High Court examined whether the Legal Practice Council could urgently suspend two legal practitioners without conducting a proper investigation into allegations of trust fund misappropriation exceeding R16.9 million. The case centered on the interpretation of section 43 of the Legal Practice Act and whether the LPC's expedited process, based solely on untested allegations from a complainant involved in divorce proceedings.

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The Supreme Court of Nigeria has ruled that judgment debtors cannot file motions to set aside garnishee orders nisi, declaring such applications unknown to Nigerian law. This decision in Vitachem (Nig.) Ltd. v. DSM Sinochem Pharm. I.P. Ltd. fundamentally reshapes enforcement practice by clarifying that the only lawful response to a garnishee order nisi is a counter-affidavit to show cause, not a freestanding motion to set aside.

Garnishee proceedings represent a specialized statutory mechanism for enforcing monetary judgments in Nigeria, operating outside the conventional pleadings-based civil litigation framework. Governed primarily by the Sheriffs and Civil Process Act, this procedure offers judgment creditors an expedited pathway to recover debts owed to judgment debtors by third parties.

A recent Gauteng High Court judgment confirms that mandatory court-annexed mediation cannot be avoided simply because parties are hostile toward each other or believe the process will be futile. The court ordered an uncooperative defendant to participate in mediation, establishing that only exceptional circumstances will excuse parties from the process introduced by the Directive and Protocol.