Dr Aboubacar Fall

Dr Aboubacar Fall is a Senior Partner at AF Legal Law Firm. He is a member of several arbitration institutions including the African Arbitration Association (AfAA), the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA, the International Arbitration Institute, the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) etc.

He participated in the London based Queen Mary University’s Survey on International Arbitration. In July 2019, he appeared, as a Legal Expert, in an ICC arbitration proceeding in Paris in the framework of an offshore oil & gas block related dispute.

In December 2019, on behalf of the African Centre for International Law Practice (ACILP), Dr FALL participated, as an observer, to the session of the UNCITRAL Working Group III in Vienna (Austria) in relation to the reform of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) System.

Dr FALL was designated by Prof. Emmanuel Gaillard as an Official Contributor to the UNCITRAL Guide on the 1958 New York Convention for the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards for Senegal. The New York Convention was ratified by Senegal on 17 October 1994. In that regard, he has provided the UNCITRAL Guide team with the first decision (CONAGRA International S.A. c. Sénégalaise de Distribution de Matériel Avicole SEDIMA) handed down in 1997 by the Tribunal Regional of Dakar regarding the application in Senegal of the 1958 New York Convention to an award delivered by the London based Grain & Feed Trade Association (GAFTA). He also has provided three (3) more recent decisions rendered by the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Dakar (2016), the Dakar Court of Appeal (2017) and the Cour de Cassation (2018) on the Société Ascot S.A vs. Etablissements Bocar Samba DIEYE case applying the 1958 New York Convention.

Dr FALL has published several international arbitration related articles and chapters including the following:
- Defence and Illustration of Lex Mercatoria in International Maritime Arbitration: the case study of “extra-contractual detention” in voyage charterpaty disputes”; a paper presented at the 12th International Congress of Maritime Arbitrators (ICMA) held in Paris in 1998.
- The International Bar Association (IBA) Guide on Arbitration, Enforcement of Arbitral Awards in Senegal” in IBA Arbitration and ADR Committee NewsLetter.
- May 2004, Investment Arbitration: Challenges for African countries (2013) “at the Senegal Bar & International Lawyers Union (UIA) co-organized international Seminar in Sally (Senegal).
- Presentation in 2019, on “International Commercial Arbitration at the International in Oil & Gas Disputes” at the International Colloquium co-organized by the Ministry of Justice and the Senegalese branch of EITI in Dakar (Senegal).
- Article in the Financial Afrik, February 2020, on the topic of “l’Afrique et l’arbitrage international”.
- Presentation on the topic “Does the Covid 19 pandemic have an impact of arbitration in Africa?” during a Webinar organized by the Arbitration Commission of the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA).