Documents of the African Union and its predecessors, 1963 to date
The African Union is Africa's oldest and premier international organisation. Created on 25 May 1963 as the Organisation of African Unity (a day celebrated as Africa Day on the continent), the African Union and its predecessor, the Organisation of African Union constitute the most important legislator of African international law.
Between 1963 to 2018, the African Union and Organisation of African Unity have adopted tens of treaties and thousands of important soft law instruments, which in totality can be seen as foundation documents of African international law. Article 19 of the 2003 Protocol on the Court of Justice of the African Union grants this international court jurisdiction over interpretation of the AU Constitutive Act and all other AU law (treaties and subsidiary legislation) in the following words:
- (b) the interpretation, application or validity of Union treaties and all subsidiary legal instruments adopted within the framework of the Union;
- (d) all acts, decisions, regulations and directives of the organs of the Union. [Emphasis added]
This collection aims to offer high quality access to the documents of this legal regime with the aim of inspiring invigorated study of the African international law created by Africa's premier international organisation.