Benue State University, Makurdi

Regional Trade Courts and Trade Disputes Settlement: A Call for Reform of the ECOWAS Court of Justice

King Nkum* and Julius Onivehu Beida**

Abstract

Dispute settlement rules and procedures are an important component of regional trade agreements. In the 21st century business and trading environment, it is presupposed that whenever there are conflicts between states or its institution with citizens and non-state actors, which they are unable to resolve amongst themselves, there shall be an established and lawfully constituted judicial body to which they may present their grievances for fair hearing, amicable resolution and compliance. However, the lack of legal recourse for violations of trade and free movement protocols in ECOWAS by the private sector gives room for concerns. More so, with the expansion of international trade and regional integration in Africa, it would seem reasonable to provide some courts, supranational in character and composition, to which opposing litigants could submit their causes for independent determination. It is our view in this paper, that in anticipation of unavoidable trade disputes between member states and between member states and its citizens, the ECOWAS Court was established and designed for resolving disputes between subjects of international law relating to regional economic integration. But the critical questions are, how did a regional court originally created to adjudicate on economic integration matters suddenly got redeployed or conferred with a different function for human rights matters in contrast to the founding principles of the ECOWAS? Why did the ECOWAS Court allow direct access for human rights complaints but not same for suits brought by traders and business owners alleging violations of ECOWAS economic and trade rules? We aim to systematically review dispute settlement provisions and practical experiences in using Trade disputes settlement in ECOWAS by clinically re-examining the role of ECOWAS regional court and the challenges confronting or hindering the court from exercising jurisdiction over economic matters and the need for reform and coherence in policy formulations in resolving trade disputes in ECOWAS.