LAW AS AN EFFECTIVE FORCE FOR INTEGRATION IN THE ECOWAS FRAMEWORK?

Abstract

This paper argues, based on the ECOWAS experience, that there are limits to which international law in the form of inter-state legislative action as a force on its own, can compel integration or effectively create an Economic Community into existence. It considers why West African states would engage in economic integration and at what costs integration can occur. This is done mostly from a lawyer’s perspective which one concedes is likely to be quite restrictive. Following the traditional view that integration occurs in a continuum, one outlines the broad stages of integration in order to ask where ECOWAS stands in the matrix. The study also explores some barriers, not exclusively economic, that challenge efforts at free trade and integration within the ECOWAS framework. One then takes a broad look at how law has been harnessed and deployed within the ECOWAS framework to facilitate integration. Before the concluding thoughts, the author equally undertakes a very modest examination of whether and how ‘Community law’ has been effective in promoting integration in the ECOWAS framework.