ECOWAS Law

This book analyses the emerging jurisprudence of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and seamlessly knits together all the disparate texts, policies and judicial decisions into a single, coherent resource. The work is deliberately crafted to address the lack of a comprehensive resource on the subject, and guide lawyers, policy-makers, Community citizens, researchers, students and civil society organisations through the labyrinth of the Community's laws and policies. From a socio-legal perspective, it unearths political, socio-economic and legal structures that impinge on the integration cause on the one hand, and dilute the efficacy of the Community legal regime on the other hand. Also, it exposes contemporary terrorism and conflict in West Africa and the legal interventions that the Community has adopted to respond to these challenges. In sequence, it traces and expounds the legal development of the Community norms with respect to sources of law, human rights, supra-nationalism and laws of the member states, reference procedure, action for damages, freedom of movement, discrimination and competition policy.

The book particularly evaluates the extent of the human rights jurisdiction of the Community Court of Justice, as well as jurisdictional limitations to the protection of Community rights either at national or Community level. Also, it sheds light on the jurisdictional chasm existing between Community law and member states' national laws, and offers proven constitutional, legislative and judicial solutions to plug the gap. It explains vividly the common market, free movement of goods and the impact of Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) on the entire ECOWAS free trade policy. In all these analyses, evaluation and examination of norms and policies, the work draws on the European Union's rich case law on similar points to explain recondite issues of law which may arise or have arisen from the application of any of the ECOWAS texts.