EAC Date of Establishment: November 30, 1999

EACJ Date Operational: November 30, 2001

EACJ Seat: Arusha, Tanzania

States Subject to EACJ Jurisdiction: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania

Number of Cases Received by the Court: 1

The East African Court of Justice is the replacement for the East African Court of Appeals that shut its doors upon the dissolution of the East African Community in 1977. Upon the revival of the East African Community in 1999, the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community provided for a different kind of regional court. Rather than the Court of Appeals, which acted as a high court for criminal and civil matters incorporated within the legal system of each Partner State, the Treaty created the supranational Court of Justice.

The EACJ is specifically given initial jurisdiction under the Treaty over the interpretation and application of the Treaty itself. The Court can be seized by a Partner State regarding a breach of the Treaty or failure to fulfill an obligation by another Partner State or any institution or organ of the Community. The Treaty also provides that a Partner State may bring a case to the Court to determine the legality of any act of the Community or any other regulation, decision or action pursuant to the Treaty and any other rule of law. Thus, the Court may employ not only the Treaty in its analysis but potentially municipal law and general international law.

The Secretary General of the Community may also bring a case to the Court against a Partner State for failure to fulfill an obligation or breach of the Treaty, provided that the Council agrees. Thus, the Community is given the power to initiate the enforcement of the Treaty, albeit subject to political agreement.

Beyond the Partner States and the Community itself, the Treaty establishes the right of legal persons resident within the Community to enforce the Treaty against the Community and the Partner States, strengthening, in theory, the binding nature of the Treaty. In addition to this direct means of seizing the Court, individual cases may also come to the Court through referral by a national court faced with a question of Treaty interpretation or the determination of the legality of a Community law or action. Notably, these provisions limit the scope of review to compliance with the Treaty and legality under the Treaty. There is no provision for the enforcement of human rights law within the Community by the Court, although this is an addition that the Treaty contemplates occurring “at the appropriate time”.

The potential for the Court to use different criteria for evaluation does, however, exist in the case of advisory opinions. Upon request of the Summit of Heads of State, the Council of Ministers or a Partner State the Court may review any question of law arising from the Treaty. The Court may also hear any arbitral case where the underlying agreement so provides.

The EACJ was dormant from its inception until December 2005, when it received its first case. This landmark first case was brought by the Assembly for a determination of the legality of actions of the Council and the Secretariat in assuming control over Assembly-led Bills and delaying their presentation to the House.

This first case came on the heels of great concern over the lack of cases brought to the Court and the resulting debate over a possible extension of the Court’s jurisdiction. In June of 2005, the East African Law Society suggested to President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda that the time had come to initiate the Treaty provision for expansion of the jurisdiction of the EACJ to cover appellate jurisdiction. Call has come also for use of that provision to expand the Court’s jurisdiction to human rights. In June of 2007, the Summit approved the operationalization of the Appellate Division of the Court, reconstituting the Court effective as of July 1, 2007.