ECOWAS court delivers 50 decisions in one year

The court of the Western African regional organization, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECOWAS ), says it has delivered 50 decisions over one year.

The Chief Registrar of the Court, Mr. Tony Anene-Maidoh was cited as saying that while 39 new cases were filed before the Community Court of Justice, between June 2015 and June 2016, 95 court sessions were held during the period.

The Court, in a post on its Facebook page reported that during a presentation on the opening day of the annual administration and budget retreat of the Court, the Chief Registrar said the Court also delivered 50 decisions, consisting of 35 judgments and 13 rulings during the period while two decisions on review of judgments were also delivered.

He said 46 cases are pending consisting of 26 part heard cases, two cases for ruling and seven for judgment.

According to Anene-Maidoh the translation and publication of the law reports of the Court is a ‘major problem’ as the last edition was that for 2011 while those for 2012 and 2013 are ready for publication in two of the three languages of the Community.

He also cited the lack of funds as a major challenge of the Court, he therefore proposed that the Court should seek external funding for the translation and publication of the law reports for 2012, 2013 and 2014 in the three languages of the Community in order to satisfy the requests from the public and litigants for such reports.