Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m8s7h Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-21T19:21:23.375Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Implementing community law in African states

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2011

Richard Frimpong Oppong
Affiliation:
Lancaster University
Get access

Summary

The effectiveness of economic integration depends largely on how it is received and implemented within member states. It is through implementation that the divide between the community and national legal systems is bridged. In economic integration, ‘the relationship between the rules that shall govern its activities and the domestic laws of the member states is quite crucial to its development’. Residents in a community and national institutions should be receptive to the objectives of economic integration – and prepared to champion them. Thus, a principal challenge in economic integration is ensuring the implementation of community law in member states. How economic integration and especially community law is received nationally depends on a number of factors, of which the legal infrastructure is just one. Legal infrastructure, which conditions how effectively community law is implemented in member states, includes constitutional laws, judicial philosophy and legal culture. With these elements, various mechanisms exist that render non-domestic laws – in this instance community law – enforceable or applicable within states. These mechanisms include national incorporation of international law, the use of foreign laws as aids to construction, the use of foreign laws as the applicable law under the rules of private international law, and taking judicial notice of foreign laws. The use of these mechanisms to implement community law aims to enhance the effectiveness of the economic integration process. They decentralize a community's law enforcement machinery and make it accessible to residents in the community. Administratively, these mechanisms reduce the burden on the institutions set up to monitor and seek remedy for violations of community law. The absence or under-utilization of these mechanisms to implement community law leads to a disjunction between community and member states and the alienation of individuals from the economic integration process. In general, it undermines a community's effectiveness.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×