The Court of Justice of the European Union As an Institutional Model for the African Court of Justice and Human Rights

Abstract

The never-established Court of Justice of the African Union, the already-functioning African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the future African Court of Justice and Human Rights (ACtJHR) are the products of an emulation of several international courts and procedural rules. Among regional courts, especially the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the European Court of Human Rights serve as models for the reform of the African Union’s international judicial system. The paper applies comparative procedural law to identify the competences and procedural norms of the CJEU that could and should be adapted to the context of the AU. The paper argues, de lege lata and de lege ferenda, that the EU’s efforts to serve as an institutional model for the African Court should be further strengthened, while the specificities and context of the African integration should be taken into account. In other words, the European model should not be applied to the ACtJHR in a copy-paste manner, but should be one of the institutional good practices before the eyes of the African Union’s leaders.

Keywords: African Court of Justice and Human Rights, African Union, Court of Justice of the European Union, emulation of international procedural law