Policy Implementation

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a central actor in the law, politics and economics of the West African sub-region. Under article 3 of the ECOWAS Revised Treaty, ECOWAS aims to deepen and strengthen relations between its members with the aim of promoting co-operation and integration, leading to the establishment of an economic union in West Africa. This goal, if ever attainable, depends considerably on the role and power of its treaty organs, including its administrative organs, strengthening the ECOWAS legal order and thus underscoring ECOWAS relevance and power. This aim suggests the need for scholars of ECOWAS to focus attention on organs that they have largely neglected. This submission explores the growth and development of administrative power in ECOWAS. I seek to contribute to the current limited body of knowledge on this aspect of ECOWAS by sketching the outlines of the ideas that have moulded the ECOWAS administrative apparatus

William Kiema’s ‘The Air Transport Industry in Africa: A Legal Analysis of the Single African Air Transport Market’ is a core contribution to academia and legal thought from a historically underexplored area of legal practice. Kiema effectively and convincingly makes among the first efforts to light up the intra-African skies by positing that air transport on the continent is underdeveloped for reasons including persistent regulatory fragmentation, uneven political commitment, and significant economic disparities across member states. The author acknowledges that the complexity of bilateral air service agreements (BASAs) and divergent national priorities has hindered liberalisation efforts, while operational challenges such as inadequate safety oversight, limited access to financing, and insufficient infrastructure further constrain progress effectively identifies the core challenges that have impeded progress in liberalisation.