One Market, One Law (www.onemarketonelaw.eu) is a non-profit organization currently being established in Brussels at the initiative Italian militants of European integration.

Its mission is to promote the unification of business law within the European Union through the implementation of codification and the European Business Code project, led by the Henri Capitant Association.

It is based on the obvious fact that a single market can only function properly if it rests upon a unified framework of commercial law, company law, and business law. One Market, One Law is a simple yet powerful way of expressing this truth. How can a single market, a unified internal market, indeed coexist with 27 fragmented, compartmentalized commercial legislations? This is also the diagnosis made by Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi in their reports, one on the single market, the other on European competitiveness.

One Market, One Law draws inspiration from the communication line One market, one currency adopted in 1990, when it was necessary to convince the Member States to embark on the path toward unifying their currency, the Euro.

The need to unify business law is a reality not only for a single market but also for a single currency. Single Market, Single Currency, Single Law form an essential triptych for any common economic construction shared by several States.

In this respect, is not the OHADA example particularly telling? At its inception in 1993, the OHADA uniform business law project proposed by Judge Kéba Mbaye was launched with the support of Heads of State, Ministers of Justice, but also Ministers of Finance, from the countries of the CFA franc community. The new OHADA business law community then quickly expanded to countries outside the franc zone, such as the Republic of Guinea and later the Democratic Republic of Congo. Madagascar and Burundi are expected, hopefully soon, to be the next new members of OHADA.

One Market, One Law could also serve as a relevant communication guideline for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) with OHADA as a continental achievement.