SIAMAMBO ACKIM2025-05-142024https://research.unilus.ac.zm/handle/123456789/409The African continent has recently experienced a rise in cases involving international commercial arbitration. This generally means that African arbitration institutions have a mandate to be equipped with the best arbitration rules that conform to internationally accepted standards. Given the above, the COMESA Court of Justice revised its Arbitration Rules of 2003. It launched the COMESA Court of Justice Arbitration Rules of 2018 to improve arbitration under COMESA and to mitigate challenges that nations in the common market face in settling international commercial arbitration disputes. This study has analyzed the 2018 rules critically and evaluated the rules' effectiveness in addressing challenges in arbitration that COMESA member states face. The methodology employed in this study was qualitative. The research discovered that the new rules have, however, not been effective and have little impact in mitigating the various challenges that are still faced in international commercial arbitration by member states. International commercial arbitration challenges such as the cumbersome notice process when filing an action at the Court, the bias of the Court in reviewing the exhaustion of local remedies, lack of investor-state arbitration at the Court, prolonged arbitration processes, high costs of arbitration, difficulties with recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards, lack of important provisions in the Courts' current arbitration rules (these include provisions for handling complex arbitration disputes such as joinder and consolidation, provisions for expedited procedures, and provisions for the conduct of legal representatives and provisions for the doctrine of separability).enArticle