Events Of The Court
Decisions of the Court are final and binding under the 1991 Protocol. Member states and ECOWAS institutions must take all measures necessary to ensure execution of the Court’s decision. Under Article 24 of the 2005 Protocol, the execution of a judgment of the Court must be in the form of a Writ of Execution, and the Chief Registrar is required to submit this Writ to the member state. The member state is required to execute the judgment according to its national courts. The member state must also determine the national authority to execute the Court’s judgment and inform the Court of the relevant authority.
CCJ jurisdiction is set out in Article 9 of the 1991 Protocol which states that the court “shall ensure the observance of law and the principles of equity in the interpretation and application of the provisions of the Treaty.” The Court has ruled that this includes jurisdiction over human rights cases. This principle was codified by a 2005 ECOWAS Supplemental Protocol, which states that the CCJ has jurisdiction to hear human rights cases and expands the admissibility rules to include disputes between individuals and their own member states. As a result of these amendments, the CCJ is thus four courts in one: an administrative tribunal for ECOWAS, a human rights court, a court of arbitration, and an Inter-State dispute resolution tribunal
