ORGANIC LAWS IN AFRICA AND THE JUDICIAL BRANCH

Abstract

During the last decades, several countries have entrenched a special subcategory of law, which is adopted by stricter procedural rules, than the requirements of the ordinary legislative process. These laws are enacted by qualified majority, by the consent of the two chambers of the legislation, they are subject to mandatory constitutional review before their promulgation, or additional safeguards are implemented in the ordinary legislative process. Organic law appears in the French, the Spanish and the Hungarian legal system also as main models. Later, further European countries implemented organic law in their legal system, such as Portugal, Romania or Moldova. Organic law is also known in Latin-America. In Africa, a total of 19 countries have implemented organic law: Algeria; Angola; Benin; Burkina Faso; Central African Republic; Chad; Djibouti; Equatorial Guinea; Gabon; Guinea; Ivory Coast; Democratic Republic of Congo; Republic of Congo; Madagascar; Mauritania; Morocco; Niger; Senegal; Togo; Tunisia; and Cape Werde Islands. Although the fact, that organic law has been introduced in a huge number of African countries, this phenomena has not been researched in depth int he relevant African literature. Several questions might be raised: whether the implementation of organic law is a mere copy of European (French and Portugal) samples, or internal African reasons may be also identifiable? What is the role of organic law in African constitutional systems, could organic laws promote the stability of African constitutional frameworks? Is there any regional differences between organic laws? African organic laws differs remarkably from their European counterparts? Is there any African discussion or jurisprudence from the legal category of organic law?My study will address such issues, and would provide a broad overview from African organic laws. I have three main purposes: to understand the characteristics of African organic laws; to compare the relevant African and the European models; and to analyse the perspectives of organic laws in Africa. My concept would be based on a combined strands of first and secondary African and European sources, which have been rarely used in this integrated manner.