AFRICAN UNION LEGAL DRAFTING: PROCESS, MECHANISMS AND CHALLENGES

Abstract

The African Union (AU), whose sphere of competence covers the entire African continent with 55
Member States, can pride itself on presenting a more than satisfactory normative record. It is not
surprising therefore, since normative action is one of the traditional activities of any international
organization. In fact, the development and adoption of legal rules is primarily intended to give
Member States the opportunity to establish standards of behavior which they consider necessary
or useful to impose on themselves.
Nevertheless, and this must be noted from the outset, international affairs raise important political,
diplomatic, legal, economic and other challenges with far-reaching consequences. The nature of
these problems requires a degree of international cooperation achieved through multilateral
negotiations, which entail discussions and consultations between representatives of three or more
States with a view to reaching an agreement on an issue or a set of related issues. Even more
substantially, multilateral negotiations are most often characterized by uncertainty, high issue
complexity and a wide range of participating actors and interests. In that respect, international
organizations, such as the African Union (AU), have emerged as institutionalized fora,
appropriately structured to facilitate such complicated and multidimensional processes.