RESOLUTION OF INTERNATIONAL DISPUTES: ADVANTAGES OF AFRICA’S SUPRANATIONAL COURTS COMPARED TO NATIONAL COURTS

Abstract

In man’s daily interactions either politically, commercially or in business life and even in family setting, disputes are bound to arise. States or nations took care of these disputes by setting up courts or tribunals which were vested with coercive powers to settle, or adjudicate on same and enforce such decisions. As time went on, these disputes arose at the international levels which were later labeled ‘International disputes.’ The International Community through the instrumentality of the United Nations set up the International Court of Justice and later the International Criminal Court (ICC) to handle these international disputes. For reasons bordering mainly on culture and political setting, Africa did not take the opportunity to set up its own, at the same time as Europe and America. However, as a result of the need for economic integration and to reap the fruits of globalization, Africa set up its own supranational or regional courts starting first with the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and latter, the ECOWAS Court of Justice, the East African Court of Justice, the South African Development Community Tribunal, SADC and the OHADA Common Court of Justice and Arbitration (CCJA). Nevertheless, because of Africa’s peculiarity in terms of historical evolution of its supranational courts which may have been ignored for some time now there is the need to treat it in an article of this nature. This article not only made a big attempt to treat their historical evolution but also compared the advantages of these supranational courts to that of the national courts of the continent in the resolution of international disputes and concluded that Africa’s supranational courts are still relatively young compared to that of Europe and America but also a necessity in the resolution of international disputes compared to national courts existing in the continent. This work was purely doctrinal based.