The President of the ECOWAS Court, Justice Edward Amoako Asante, has announced that a technical committee of the ECOWAS Court of Justice will be set up to finalise the subject matter index of the Courtm which will reflect the key pronouncements of the Court on various issues for the benefit of the Court, researchers, legal practitioners and other stakeholders.
Speaking at the closing on Friday, May 7, 2021 of the week-long workshop that validated the Court’s index for 2004/2014, the President of the Court said that the committee would undertake its work after the conclusion of the second phase of the validation scheduled to take place before the end of May 2021 and which will involve decisions taken by the Court between 2014 and 2020.
He explained that the committee will fine tune the document in order to ensure it is comprehensive and captured all the key pronouncements of the Court on various issues and ensure that the stakeholders enjoyed the rich benefit of the Court’s jurisprudence for the period.
The validation by mainly the judges and legal staff of the Court, involves checking the accuracy of the draft statement and its fidelity with the judgments of the Court, confirming it is reflective of the decisions of the Court, establishing that it is comprehensive and reflects the important legal principles pronounced by the Court and confirming its validity, while effecting changes to fill identified gaps or omissions aimed at ensuring a qualitative improvement.
A statement by the ECOWAS Commission on Monday in Abuja said several presentations were made by legal staff of the Court on the legal principles identified in the jurisprudence, which were considered and adopted in a general report presented at the end of the sessions.
It added that at the opening of the workshop on May 3, 2021, the President said the workshop was intended to address the void resulting from the non-existence of a subject matter index of the Court “which has denied the Court, researchers, legal practitioners and other stakeholders of the full benefit of the rich repertoire of the Court’s jurisprudence exemplified by the 272 judgments and 125 rulings rendered by the Court as at 30th April 2021.”
Moreover, he said, the workshop would serve as a platform “for review of the draft index by all the legal practitioners of the Court and to undertake an objective evaluation and improvement of the document and that the final document would be uploaded on the web site of the Court for ease of reference and retrieval.
GIK/APA