The African International Economic Law Network (AfIELN) was established in 2008 to provide a forum for research and exchange of ideas on International Economic Law (IEL). The Network’s establishment followed the Society of International Economic Law’s goal of promoting and facilitating co-ordination, collaboration, networking and debates on IEL, and the need to institute African leadership and ownership within the global network.
In mapping out the patterns of IEL in the world, the Africa chapter came to life, sustained by the great foresight of the founders. In line with the Network’s objective, the founders were committed to making scholarship available for African scholars, students, practitioners and policy experts, and in keeping with this, several initiatives to make IEL knowledge exchange accessible took place. These included distributing law books to libraries in African Universities as well as hosting a number of conferences on emergent issues in the area, in an effort to capitalise on African experiences and approaches. Through a close partnership with Afronomicslaw.org, AfIELN has been part of the push to provide topical academic material through the blog’s open access forum.
AfIELN continues to harness Africa’s participation and expertise in the development of IEL in a way that elevates pan-African discourse.