Business
French-derived commercial law, a free-zone regime, and ports as the whole economy
Companies are formed under the Commercial Code with SARL and SA forms familiar from French law. The Investment Code and the free-zone framework provide the incentives that structure most foreign entry, overwhelmingly around the port and logistics sector.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — National. The Guichet Unique handles company formation; the Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority administers zone licensing.
Governing law
- Code de commerce
- Code des investissements, Loi 88/AN/94
- Loi 53/AN/04 on free zones
- Loi 118/AN/11 establishing the commercial court
In practice
Djibouti is not an OHADA member, which is the point most easily got wrong given that its neighbours to the west are francophone civil-law states — its commercial law is national and French-derived rather than governed by the Uniform Acts, so OHADA company forms and the CCJA's jurisdiction do not apply. The economy is dominated by the port and the transit corridor serving landlocked Ethiopia, plus the rents from foreign military bases, so commercial practice concentrates on concessions, logistics and shipping rather than on a broad domestic corporate sector. The specialised commercial court created in 2011 was intended to improve the speed and predictability of business disputes. The long-running dispute over the DP World Doraleh container terminal concession, and Djibouti's decision to terminate it, is the reference point for how concession disputes and international arbitration awards interact with sovereign control of strategic assets here.