Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Table of treaties
- Table of cases (international/regional courts)
- Table of cases (national courts)
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Africa's economic integration – an introductory overview
- 2 Legal framework for managing relational issues
- 3 The AU, AEC and regional economic communities
- 4 Community–state relations in Africa's economic integration
- 5 Relational issues before the community courts
- 6 AU/AEC institutions and the enforcement of community law
- 7 Implementing community law in African states
- 8 Inter-institutional relations: public–private international law dimensions
- 9 Interstate relations, economic transactions and private international law
- 10 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - The AU, AEC and regional economic communities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Table of treaties
- Table of cases (international/regional courts)
- Table of cases (national courts)
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Africa's economic integration – an introductory overview
- 2 Legal framework for managing relational issues
- 3 The AU, AEC and regional economic communities
- 4 Community–state relations in Africa's economic integration
- 5 Relational issues before the community courts
- 6 AU/AEC institutions and the enforcement of community law
- 7 Implementing community law in African states
- 8 Inter-institutional relations: public–private international law dimensions
- 9 Interstate relations, economic transactions and private international law
- 10 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Africa is awash with regional economic communities (RECs). Indeed, as far back as 1976, Ajomo picturesquely described the ‘mercurial proliferation and disappearance’ of regional economic institutions in Africa. For political, economic and strategic reasons, many countries belong to more than one REC. The multiplicity of RECs and the concomitant multiple state memberships have created a complex patchwork that complicates decision-making for states, community officials, individuals and businesses. In what is, to date, the only detailed, continent-wide empirical study into the effect of the twin phenomena of many RECs and multiple memberships, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) concluded that the phenomena impact negatively on the achievement of the goals of the African Economic Community (AEC). In June 2009, some member states – Kenya and Uganda – could not join the newly formed COMESA customs union as they belonged to the EAC customs union. The phenomena also impact negatively on Africa's international trade relations. In the recent EU-led Economic Partnership Agreements negotiations, countries in Eastern and Southern Africa – the regions where the phenomena are most prevalent – had to form new regional groupings for the purposes of the negotiations.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Legal Aspects of Economic Integration in Africa , pp. 64 - 81Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011