Through substantive investigation, African Participation at the World Trade Organization: Legal and Institutional Aspects, 1995-2010 offers thorough explanations for the nominal, minimal, and largely ineffective activity of African members in the WTO, focusing on the three core areas of regular committee work, dispute settlement and negotiations, and considering the Group's size, compared to non-African Members. Fundamentally, the research examines the longstanding and continuing question in the Multilateral Trading System revolving around the substantive quality and effectiveness of African participation in a rules-based Multilateral Trading System with a balance of rights and obligations.
The book is a must-read for anyone interested in the factors, motivations and explanations that have underpinned the behavior of African countries in the GATT/WTO system of trade rules.

Dr. Joan Apecu Laker is an Economic Affairs Officer in the Council and Trade Negotiations Committee Division of the World Trade Organisation, Geneva, Switzerland. Prior to that (1999-2004) she served in several capacities in the Uganda Law Reform Commission, including as a Senior Legal Officer in charge of Law Reform and Research, where she undertook law reform projects in several branches of the law. Dr. Apecu had an academic attachment with the Permanent Mission of Uganda to the United Nations and Other International Organisations in Geneva Switzerland. She has also been an Assistant lecturer in the Faculty of Law, Uganda Christian University Mukono. She holds a Masters of Law Degree (LLM), Cum Laude, in International Trade and Investment Law, from the universities of Pretoria (South Africa) and the Amsterdam Law School (The Netherlands), a postgraduate diploma in legal practice from the Law Development Centre in Uganda and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Makerere University in Uganda.