In English

This page gathers English-language abstracts of selected essays and legal analyses by Mamadou Ismaïla Konaté. Each abstract links to the full text, published in French. The writings span constitutional law, OHADA business law, regional integration and the defence of the rule of law in West Africa.

Who is Mamadou Ismaïla Konaté?

Mamadou Ismaïla Konaté is a Malian lawyer admitted to the Bar in both Mali and Paris, and an international arbitrator. Born in Kayes in 1963 and trained in Bordeaux, he founded Jurifis Consult in 1997 and leads the firm now known as JFC Avocats, ranked by Chambers Global among the region's leading business-law practices. He served as Mali's Minister of Justice, Keeper of the Seals, from July 2016 to November 2017, and is Secretary-General of the African Association of Business Lawyers (APAA). He is the author of five books on OHADA law, African justice and the rule of law.

For the full biography (in French), see Qui suis-je.

Selected writings

The Convergence of Authoritarianism, Injustice and Illegality (2026)

A legal and political chronicle of Mali's military transition. Konaté argues that three forces have converged — authoritarianism, injustice and illegality — turning the state of exception into an ordinary method of government: suspended parties, a muzzled press, a captured judiciary, an election calendar postponed indefinitely. His thesis is that no order built on force rather than law endures, and that reconstruction must rest on the rule, justice and popular legitimacy.

Read the full text (in French) →

Case Note: Court of Justice of the WAEMU, Judgment No. 01/2026 (2026)

A close reading of the WAEMU Court of Justice ruling of 28 January 2026 in State of Mali v. Conference of Heads of State. Konaté examines the annulment of the economic and financial sanctions for lack of legal basis, the autonomy of the WAEMU legal order, and the looming 'war of the judges' between community and national courts — a decisive question for the future of supranational law in West Africa.

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Competition Regulation and the Platform Economy (2026)

A critical analysis of a 2026 decision by Mali's competition authority ordering the mobile-money operator Wave to cease absorbing a 1% withdrawal levy. Konaté questions the characterisation of below-cost selling in a platform business model, tests it against WAEMU community law and the BCEAO's financial-inclusion policy, and draws on European and comparative law to show how ill-adapted classic competition doctrine is to the digital economy.

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Civic Disaffection and the Electoral Sham in Guinea (2025)

On the massive abstention that marked Guinea's recent ballot. Konaté reads it not as apathy but as a verdict: a people preferring the football tournament to a staged election. He dissects the machinery of a purchased mobilisation and the manufactured legitimacy of a military-led transition, and what citizen withdrawal reveals about the crisis of the electoral process across the region.

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Proving Malian Nationality — By Any Means (2024)

A doctrinal study of how Malian nationality may be established in law. Konaté sets out the applicable rules, the burden and the admissible modes of proof, and confronts the practical obstacles faced by citizens — a question with direct consequences for civil status, electoral rights and access to public office.

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The AES States' Withdrawal from ECOWAS: Bluff or Turning Point? (2024)

An analysis of the decision by the Alliance of Sahel States (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger) to leave ECOWAS. Konaté weighs the legal mechanics and the consequences of the rupture for free movement, common citizenship and the regional legal order, and asks whether the move is a negotiating posture or a lasting reconfiguration of West African integration.

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Retroactive Forfeit in an AFCON Final and African Sports Governance (2026)

A critical commentary on the CAF Appeal Jury's decision stripping Senegal of its 2025 African champion title. Konaté examines the CAF regulations, disciplinary code and statutes, the reasoning of the successive jury decisions and the prospect of a CAS appeal — a case study in due process and the rule of law applied to African sports governance.

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Sahara, Azawad and Sahelian Reconfigurations (2026)

Mali at the crossroads. Konaté situates the country's northern question within the wider recomposition of the Sahel and the Western Sahara file, tracing how territorial and diplomatic realignments bear on the state's sovereignty — understood not as rhetoric but as the effective, lawful exercise of authority.

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Speaking Under Dictatorship: When Power Arrests Words (2026)

Written in homage to an imprisoned newspaper editor and drawing on Sony Labou Tansi, this essay treats dictatorship as a disease of language. Konaté argues that a regime which begins arresting journalists has already lost its moral legitimacy, and that the criminalisation of speech is the first and surest sign of a power that governs by fear.

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The Demolition of Mali's Constitutional Order (2025)

Konaté documents how Mali's military authorities have dismantled the constitutional order — the abrogation of the charter of political parties and the status of the opposition, which he characterises as a juridical coup and a political forfeiture — and what the erasure of these guarantees means for citizens left without legal recourse.

Read the full text (in French) →

Contact: Jurifis Consult — 30-32 rue Cortambert, 75116 Paris · mko@jurifis.com · LinkedIn