Practical Information

The Community Court of Justice, ECOWAS was established pursuant to the provisions of Article 15 of the Revised Treaty of ECOWAS and listed in Article 6 as one of the institutions of the Community. Protocol A/P1/7/91 relating to the Community Court of Justice sets out the status, composition, powers and procedures of the Court. The Protocol states that the Court is the principal legal organ of the Community with the main function of resolving disputes relating to the interpretation and application of the provisions of the Revised Treaty, Protocols and Conventions adopted by the Community.
Though the Protocol of the Court was adopted in 1991, the Court only became operational in 2001 with the swearing-in of its pioneer Members on 30 January, 2001 in Bamako, Mali.

The Court interprets and applies the Revised Treaty, Conventions, Protocols, Regulations and other Community texts adopted by the Member States, as well as the general principles of law in the settlement of disputes brought before it. As it relates to human rights protection, the Court interprets and applies international and regional human rights instruments ratified by the Member States against which a case was brought.

The decisions of the Court are final and immediately enforceable, this means they are not subject to appeal. However, parties may file post-judgment applications under specific requirements, which include, for revision of judgment, for rectification of judgment, for omission in judgment and to set aside a default judgment.
The decisions of the Court are binding on Member States, institutions of the Community, individuals and corporate bodies.

Article 24 of Supplementary Protocol A/SP.1/01/05 provides for the method of implementation of the judgment of the Court.
It provides that execution of any decision of the Court shall be in the form of a writ of execution, which shall be submitted by the Registrar of the Court to the relevant Member State for execution according to the rules of civil procedure of that Member State. Upon the verification of the appointed authority of the recipient Member State that the writ is from the Court, the writ shall be enforced.
In this regard, all Member States are obligated to appoint a competent national authority for the purposes of receiving and processing of the writ of execution and notify the Court accordingly. The following countries have appointed competent national authorities: Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

Article 10 of the Supplementary Protocol provides that access to the Court is open to the following:

All Member States and the Commission for actions brought for failure by Member States to fulfil their obligations; Member States, the Council of Ministers and the Commission, for the determination of the legality of an action in relation to any Community text.
ECOWAS Institutions;
Individuals and corporate bodies, for any act of the Community which violates the rights of such individuals or corporate bodies;
Staff of any of the ECOWAS Institutions;
Individuals for relief for the violation of their human rights
National courts or parties to a case, when such national courts or parties request that the ECOWAS Court interprets, on preliminary grounds, the meaning of any legal instrument of the Community
The Authority of Heads of State and Government.