In her daily schedule, Ruth Lumbongo Mbambi, a senior research advocate in the Supreme Court of Zambia, often comes across cases of breach of contract, labor laws and even criminal matters involving Zambians and Chinese nationals. In another part of the world, Luo Dongchuan, a judge at China's Supreme People's Court, says at the Fourth Civil Division of the court where he deals with overseas commercial and maritime affairs, there are around 10,000 cases related to international disputes annually. For his part, Mauritian diplomat Mervin N. Chedumbarum has been witnessing growing legal disputes arising as a result of Mauritians and Chinese misunderstanding or not knowing each other's laws.

It is a clear case of cause and effect. As trade between China and Africa grows, there is also an increase in trade disputes. In 2009, China became Africa's single largest trade partner and has retained that distinction. In 2013, bilateral trade crossed $200 billion. This year, it is expected to exceed $300 billion. The South Africa-based Standard Bank, Africa's largest bank, has assessed Chinese investment in Africa would jump 70 percent from 2009 to $50 billion in 2015.

"Over the years, China's presence in Africa in terms of trade has been growing steadily and China is contributing to African economies, and vice versa," said Mbambi. "Where there is trade, disputes are inevitable. It is in the best interests of both China and African countries to have a wide knowledge of each other's laws and customs. This will smoothen trade and allow for fair dispute resolution."

Both Chinese and African authorities had realized the need to learn about one another's laws and customs systematically and in November 2009, the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Egypt adopted an action plan that included enhancing legal cooperation. Consequently, a FOCAC Legal Forum where legal luminaries like law ministers and heads of legal organizations could discuss legal cooperation was formed. The forum, in turn, led to the establishment of the China-Africa Legal Professionals' Exchange Project, a platform for legal practitioners and scholars from African countries and China to meet regularly to learn the nitty-gritty of one another's laws and keep abreast of new developments.

The one-month exchange project, in its second year, was held in Beijing from May 25 to June 20 under the auspices of the Beijing Foreign Studies University and sponsored by the China Law Society (CLS). It was attended by 26 participants from about 20 African countries, who ranged from barristers and law ministry officials to prosecutors and scholars. 

The African interest

Zimbabwe has been a regular at the program. Last year, it sent two state officers. This year too, there were two of them. Patience Ruvimbo Dhokwani, a policy and legal research law officer from the Office of the Minister of Justice, said with China being a major investor in her country, she came to learn the basics of Chinese law and compare them with her country's: "Hopefully, when we go back, we will carry this knowledge with us."

But she has another mandate too: "Hopefully, we can impart some of our laws for their benefit."

Dhokwani also wants to spread the word about Zimbabwe's Look East policy, which seeks to expand investment ties with Asia, and the measures by her government to facilitate foreign investors' entry, like creating the Zimbabwe Investment Authority, a one-stop agency to ease foreign firms' registration.

This is the basic goal of most African participants. Like Dhokwani, Madeline Kimei, the founder of Resolution Experts, a dispute resolution service firm in Dar es Salaam, hopes to understand the legal framework in China and help adapt to it in Tanzania. "It will create a path to better relations with Chinese enterprises and businesses in Tanzania and Tanzanians in China," the Tanzanian advocate said.

Kimei also wants to talk about Tanzania's "investor-friendly and accommodating laws that would encourage the Chinese to invest in Tanzania" and about the Tanzania Investment Center, the single window providing all information for investment promotion and facilitation. In addition, she wants to highlight that Tanzania, the headquarters of the five-member East African Community, can be the gateway for investors into all of East Africa.

Developing African economies also want to find the key to economic prosperity from China's legal structure. "Chinese laws fascinate the world," said Ibula Blaise Franklin, a senior legal counsel of Huawei Technologies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. "From a developing country, it has grown to one of the world's major powers. Is there any specific law that is supporting China's growth? How is China tackling the legal challenge of promoting and taking in foreign investment and ensuring wealth creation on the other hand?"

The answers, he says, would make African countries better prepared to provide services to investors and grow more attractive to them. 

A smart weapon

But there is a great deal more to Sino-African legal cooperation. As Zhang Wenxian, well-known Chinese jurist and CLS Vice President, and Gu Zhaomin, Director General of CLS liaison department, point out in a joint paper at the exchange program, there is hard power, soft power and smart power: "Hard power mainly refers to economic and military strength; soft power refers to cultural influence and cohesion; smart power refers to the ability to influence international rules and governing structures."

History proves that legal diplomacy is essential for any nation's rise to eminence in the international arena. "The Roman Empire conquered the world three times," the scholars note. "The first [time] by war, the second [by] religion, and the third [by] law."

When China and Africa were economically underdeveloped, they had little say in the formulation of international laws. The United Nations Charter and the World Trade Organization rules have mostly been dictated by developed Western powers. But now with both China and Africa making their presence felt, greater legal cooperation between them would lead to a greater say in world forums.

It is a view shared by the African participants too. Ahmed Radwan Sallam, an associate with Matouk Bassiouny, a law firm based in Cairo, thinks greater legal cooperation would ultimately lead to a "more equitable world order."

"The main objective of law is always the search for justice," said Sallam, who saw his country undergo political upheavals triggered by the "Arab Spring." "This course is for a more harmonized legal framework in all legal aspects, including international law. This will lead to more harmonization in other developing countries, which will lead to reshaping the balance of world power," he said.

"A new world order seems far and illusionary but every dream starts with a little step and this course is part of this first step," Sallam added.