The emerging architecture of African dispute resolution

Adv Svetlana Vasileva, Afsa Secretary General

In this environment, the familiar machinery of the courtroom is being supplemented, if not progressively replaced, by arbitration, mediation and hybrid dispute resolution mechanisms that promise efficiency, predictability and autonomy.

In Africa, particularly in Southern Africa, this shift is not abstract. It is visible in rising pressure on courts, growing appetite for arbitration, and demand for digitally competent, internationally credible dispute-resolution services.

Looking to 2026, at least five trends stand out as structurally reshaping the legal landscape.

1. Domestic arbitration is becoming the default escape valve

Across Southern Africa, domestic arbitration is no longer a niche alternative. It is growing for a simple reason: litigation timelines have become incompatible with commercial risk tolerance. Court delays, some driven by backlogs, others by structural resource constraints, are pushing corporates, small-to-medium enterprises and even state-linked entities to look for faster, more predictable outcomes.

This shift is not ideological; it is pragmatic. Users cannot wait three to five years to resolve disputes. Investor mandates demand certainty, and weak enforcement environments create real reputational and financial risk. Arbitration is increasingly a business-continuity tool, not a high-end exception.

As disputes become more specialised, parties increasingly demand arbitrators with sector-specific expertise, construction engineers, maritime practitioners, fintech specialists and mining experts. This is accelerating a quiet but significant trend: the deepening expertise and specialisation within domestic arbitration practice, with clear implications for how we train practitioners and design future legal education.

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2. International arbitration is expanding on South Africa’s pro-arbitration framework

International arbitration in Africa often faces challenges linked to enforcement risk, political interference, and institutional fragility. South Africa is an exception.

The adoption of the UNCITRAL Model Law via the International Arbitration Act (2017), combined with an arbitration-friendly judiciary, has positioned South Africa as one of the region’s most credible arbitral jurisdictions.

This has created clear market effects: increased willingness among foreign parties to seat arbitrations locally, growing expertise in cross-border disputes, broader acceptance of hybrid dispute clauses, and greater demand for African arbitrators with international experience.

For companies operating across SADC, where supply-chain disputes, infrastructure projects, and cross-border financing arrangements are on the rise, South Africa offers credibility and convenience: a regional seat that is connected, predictable, and enforceable.

As global commercial disputes rise, South Africa’s quiet strength, legal certainty, has become a competitive advantage.

3. The Brics realignment is reshaping dispute patterns and risk appetite

Geopolitical realignment is no longer theoretical. For Africa, Brics expansion represents opportunity and exposure. Supply chains, investment flows, digital commerce, and energy projects are increasingly shaped by Brics actors, from state-owned entities to multinational corporations.

This brings new cross-border disputes, regulatory clashes, sanctions exposure, construction and energy-related arbitrations.

In this environment, parties are looking for neutral, enforceable, cost-efficient dispute-resolution mechanisms that can adapt to this complexity and remain sensitive to geopolitical realities. Africa’s role in this emerging architecture is likely to deepen, not diminish, and so will demand for institutions capable of providing regional insight coupled with global compatibility.

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4. Hybrid processes are moving from experimental to mainstream

The space between adversarial litigation and consensual mediation is expanding rapidly. Hybrid dispute resolution mechanisms such as med-arb and arb-med-arb are gaining traction because they reflect commercial logic: resolve early where possible, arbitrate where necessary, and minimise costs.

This trend is not soft, but strategic. Commercial clients do not want to "win at trial" — they want to manage risk, preserve value, and move on.

One indicator of this shift is the renewed interest in mediation as part of integrated dispute systems, rather than as a peripheral or purely ethical exercise. Another is the role of events such as Johannesburg Arbitration Week (Jaw) 2026, which place innovation and dispute resolution at the centre of regional conversation rather than at the margins.

5. Digital dispute resolution is now infrastructure, not contingency

The pandemic accelerated digital adoption. What is new is that remote hearings, cloud-based evidence platforms, and asynchronous procedural management are now a permanent architecture, not temporary solutions. For dispute resolution, especially, they have changed the market calculus.

Remote hearings reduce cost and delay. Hybrid hearings increase participation. International arbitrators are easier to secure. Scheduling becomes more efficient.

But this comes with unresolved questions about cybersecurity and data integrity, confidentiality of cloud-stored evidence, and unequal access to digital infrastructure.

The challenge is not whether technology will reshape dispute resolution – it already has - but how to build ethical, secure, and accessible frameworks around it.

A connected system: The forces reshaping dispute resolution

The emerging architecture of dispute resolution can be visualised as five interconnected forces: pressure on courts driving arbitration uptake; pro-arbitration legal frameworks attracting cross-border disputes; geopolitical realignment generating complex disputes; hybrid processes blending arbitration and mediation; and digital systems enabling global participation.

Together, they form a networked ecosystem in which speed, expertise, neutrality and technological competence are not optional; they are the baseline of legitimacy.

And efficiency without legitimacy is meaningless. Innovation without reliability is noise.

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Africa’s moment: moving from adoption to influence

South Africa, and the broader SADC region, is entering a period of economic transition driven by infrastructure development, energy transition, and emerging innovation ecosystems. This is generating new disputes, but also new expectations of justice: speed, fairness, expertise, and enforceability.

The opportunity for African dispute-resolution ecosystems is to evolve not as passive adopters of imported models, but as active designers of context-appropriate systems informed by global standards and grounded in local commercial realities.

Historically, Africa’s legal systems have tended to adapt global models rather than shape them. But a period of economic transformation, regulatory innovation, and rapid digitalisation is creating space for the continent to influence, rather than merely absorb, the evolution of global dispute-resolution practice.

Africa can emerge not only as a forum for dispute resolution, but as a designer of systems that blend international best practices with regional needs, provided its institutions can deliver legally credible frameworks, sector-specific expertise, predictable timelines, digital capability, and cross-border enforceability.

Looking ahead: trust is still the currency

Technology, globalisation, geopolitics and procedural innovation will continue to accelerate change. But the core determinant of success in dispute resolution remains unchanged: trust.

Users must believe in the neutrality of the forum, the competence of arbitrators, the integrity of the process and the enforceability of outcomes. Without trust, efficiency is meaningless; without credibility, innovation is noise.

The architecture of dispute resolution in 2026 and beyond, whether physical or digital, adversarial or hybrid, will stand or fall on one test: its ability to deliver outcomes that are not just faster and cheaper, but also fair, final and enforceable. That is the real measure of legitimacy.