Good governance as a precondition for subsidiarity: human rights litigation in Nigeria and ECOWAS

Abstract

ABSTRACTSimilar to the European Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) evolved gradually from little more than a customs union to a supranational organisation with sophisticated governance arrangements. As a consequence, subsidiarity has become an inevitable adjustment mechanism to align individual member state policies with objectives of the Community as a whole. In particular, since the inclusion of a protocol on good governance and democracy in 2001 an increasing number of policy areas require a delineation of competencies between state and Community organs. Moreover, the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice confines itself to the vertical application of human rights law and does not accept human rights claims against private persons since the extension of its mandate in 2005. Many cases involving the Federal Republic of Nigeria illustrate well a double procedural effect of the principle of subsidiarity in the human rights litigation within the ECOWAS legal order.