About Us

The Community Court of Justice is the judicial arm of the community and was established pursuant to the provisions of Articles 6 and 15 of the Revised Treaty of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Protocol A/P1/7/91, as amended by the 19 January 2005 Supplementary Protocol (A/SP.1/01/05), sets out the organizational framework, functioning mechanism and the procedures of the Court.

The 1991 Initial Protocol on the Court specifically provided that the Court shall be composed of seven (7) Independent Judges. The same Protocol also provided that the tenure of the judges shall be for five (5) years and renewable for another tenure of 5 years. However, in 2006 and 2018 respectively, there were amendments to this Initial Protocol which reduced the tenure of judges from five (5) years renewable for another term of five (5) years to four (4) years non-renewable, and the composition of the Court from seven (7) to five (5) judges.