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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Law, Power, Politics, and Economies: Critical Issues Arising Out of the New ECOWAS Treaty |
Author: | Kufuor, Kofi Oteng |
Year: | 1994 |
Periodical: | African Journal of International and Comparative Law |
Volume: | 6 |
Issue: | 3 |
Period: | October |
Pages: | 429-448 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | West Africa |
Subjects: | ECOWAS Law, Human Rights and Violence Politics and Government Inter-African Relations Economics and Trade |
External link: | https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/afjincol6&id=443&collection=journals&index=journals/afjincol |
Abstract: | The new ECOWAS Treaty, signed at Cotonou on 24 July 1993, by creating a new regime of legal obligations of the member States and a new set of policy objectives, and by increasing the number and powers of regional institutions, amounts to a substantial reinforcement of the legal framework governing intra-Community relations. This paper seeks to determine whether deepening West African economic integration can be successfully achieved by crafting out a new set of rules to function as an engine of the process. Accordingly, the article discusses the role of the law in the regulation of transnational economic relations, as well as some of the major legal problems facing ECOWAS. It then examines salient aspects of the new ECOWAS Treaty, focusing essentially on the legal regime for economic and monetary union, trade in services, and the new ECOWAS institutions. Finally, some of the 'extra-legal' obstacles to effective regional cooperation are discussed with a view to determining the extent to which a new legal framework can actually strengthen ECOWAS. The conclusion is that the new legal framework will not in itself suffice to transform and strengthen the subregional economic order and that to make ECOWAS a viable integrated area will require an effective combination of law, power, politics and economics. Notes, ref. |