The Human Rights Jurisdiction and Jurisprudence of the Community Court of Justice of ECOWAS

Abstract

The Community Court of Justice of ECOWAS is a regional Court and the legal institution of the Economic Community of West African States saddled with the jurisdiction of dealing with the interpretation of the ECOWAS treaties, protocols, trade disputes, arbitration and cases of Human Rights violations that occur within the territory of the member states amongst other jurisdiction mandated by the protocol establishing the Court. This paper will attempt to examine the above stated topic with reference to the judgments of the Court on the subject matter of who can be sued, who can sue, who is a victim, objection to jurisdiction, application of statute of limitations, the doctrine of res judicata, lis pendis and the status of the court and the relationship with the national/domestic courts of member states. All opinions and arguments advanced in this paper are the academic and legal opinion of the author and do not by any means represent the official position of the Court; as the author is writing from the position of a legal academic and a senior legal research resource person within the ECOWAS Court system.