Sierra Leone’s Acting Chief Justice Seeks ECOWAS Court Judgment Enforcement
By Adoba Echono
The Acting Chief Justice of Sierra Leone, Justice, Nicholas Colin Browne-Marke, has advocated that a mechanism be put in to ensure the judgments of ECOWAS Courts are executed.
Justice Browne-Marke, made the call at the 2024 International Conference of ECOWAS Court taking place in Freetown Sierra Leone.
The theme of the conference is Enhancing the Role, Relevance and Effectiveness of the ECOWAS Court of Justice Through the Strengthening of Synergies Between the Court and National Stakeholders.
He noted that ECOWAS member states are obligated to enforce the decisions of the ECOWAS Court as the voluntarily agreed to set up the community court which according to him is beneficial to all West Africans.
According to Justice Browne-Marke, having an institution such as the Court, hearing cases, and handing down judgments is not enough. There must be a mechanism in place which will ensure that its judgments are executed.
“We must bear in mind that the law in any country could be considered ineffective, if sanctions imposed by it are not carried into effect.
“Each of our countries, treasure our independence from external interference; but, having voluntarily joined an organisation which is supranational in its aspect and in its work, we have implicitly agreed that it is beneficial to all of us West Africans to accede to an authority composed of individuals over whom we cannot exercise direct control.”
“Just as in national jurisdictions, litigants might not like the decision of a particular court, but, are prepared to comply with that Court’s decision, so too, there has grown a belief that the same should apply to international institutions of which we are members, Justice Browne-Marke explained.
Justice Browne-Marke also called for appellate process in ECOWAS Court which according to him may the reason some member states are reluctant to submit to the decisions of the Community Court.
“Notwithstanding this conclusion, we must take into consideration that one of the reasons why States are sometimes reluctant to submit to the decisions of an international body, might be the absence of an appellate process. Litigants in individual national states are comforted by the thought that if they lose in a court of first instance, they might win in a superior court which has jurisdiction to overturn or reverse the decision of the lower court.”
Justice Browne-Marke said due consideration should be giving to creating or establishing an appellate structure, so that the current Court’s decisions are not absolutely final and un-appealed.
The Former Chief Registrar of the ECOWAS Court of Justice, Dr. Anthony Anene-Maidoh said according to the Vienna Convention on treaties every member state that signs an international agreement is under obligation to implement such agreements.
He urged all member states to domesticate or ratify the treaty establishing the court,
The Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in Nigeria, Professor Mohammed Ladan, in an interview with Voice of Nigeria, explained that the enforcement of ECOWAS court judgments is the obligation of member states and not the court.
“Enforcement of decisions of any international court, like that of the ECOWAS Court of Justice does not rely on the court itself, it is the responsibility of the executive arm of government to do so in any certain, and that also applies to ECOWAS member states.”
“Member states are the once that created ECOWAS Court of Justice, they ceded part of their legal sovereignty to the ECOWAS Court of Justice, that it can act as a supranational court for dispute resolution and that when it resolves such disputes, the decision of the ECOWAS court Justice is binding on member states that created the court.”
Professor Ladan also called for the creation of an appellate chamber of the ECOWAS Court Justice,
“You don’t allow one layer of court to be the court of first instance and the final court of appeal of its own judgment. So what many international regional courts have done outside Africa is to create an appellate chamber within the same court structure.
