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Law, Language and International Organisation in Africa: The Case of Ecowas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

S. B Ajulo
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Extract

The Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS) was instituted by the Lagos Treaty which was signed by fifteen original member states on 28 May, 1975. A few months later, Cape Verde acceded to the Treaty, thus increasing the number of member states to sixteen. In its composition, ECOWAS could be regarded as a microcosm of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) because, like the OAU, it comprises different sovereign African countries with varying colonial, political, social and cultural backgrounds. However, compared with the existing African Economic Unions, ECOWAS is, to date, unique; because, unlike them, it is a multilingual organisation. It is precisely on this multilingual nature of the organisation that this paper intends to focus.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of African Law , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , Spring 1985 , pp. 1 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1985

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References

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3 The defunct East African Common Market, and the Central African Economic and Customs Union (UDEAC). See Jalloh, A. A., “Recent Trends in Regional Integration in Africa”, in: Nigerian Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 6, No. 1 & 2 (1980), pp. 71–81Google Scholar.

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