DOI: 10.7256/2454-0633.2022.3.38662

Abstract: In this article, the author investigated the legality and legitimacy of the African Criminal Court. Despite the immunity provision criticized by the international community, its legality is consistent with international law, while it cannot be argued that the African Criminal Court is an African "panacea" for combating impunity for serious international crimes. The initial support of the International Criminal Court by the African Union and its member States in the process of creation turned into strained relations after the indictment of the International Criminal Courts mainly against high-ranking African government officials. Contrary to many critics, the Malaba Protocol on the Establishment of the African Criminal Court satisfied the requirements of both legality and legitimacy as an international criminal court. Consequently, since the African Criminal Court and the International Criminal Court have joint jurisdiction over the most serious crimes of international concern, the harmonization of the African Criminal Court and the International Criminal Court on the basis of complementarity and cooperation will lead to the formation of a tandem to combat impunity for the most serious crimes affecting the international community. The article analyzes that, despite the tense relations, the coordinated work of the African Union and the International Criminal Court is necessary in the fight against impunity for the most serious crimes of international concern. The author comes to the conclusion that the African Criminal Court is not an African alternative, but an addition to the International Criminal Court.

DOI: 10.25136/2644-5514.2020.1.31123

Abstract: This article examines whether the framework of judicial discretion or commensurable doctrines of judicial respects found access to jurisdiction in the area of human rights of the three subregional courts created in the context of regional economic communities: Court of the Economic Community of West African States; East African Community Court; and Tribunal of Southern African Development Community. The author also examines the relevance of the rights of depletion of internal means of legal protection as a separate manifestation of subsidiarity in their judicial practice. The author briefly describes the key institutional parameters for each court, the role of procedural subsidiarity in form of depletion of the norm on internal means of legal protection, as well we presence or absence of substantial subsidiarity through formulation of the limits of judicial discretion. The presence of subsidiarity in form of the limits of judicial discretion is an important condition for further work of the courts of subregional economic communities in Africa on protection of human rights, since the presence of “judicial respect” with regards to the decisions of national court and political-legal decisions of the participating countries is a key to recognition and likelihood of execution of rulings of the courts of subregional economic communities on the territory of participating countries of the corresponding communities.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0633.2019.3.29751

Abstract: The subject of this article is the problem of acceptance of the rulings rendered by subregional economic courts by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The research leans on the approaches towards the procedure of filing same cases in multiple international jurisdictions. Particular attention is paid to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights; as well as to the work of African Commission and African Court with regards to the problems of low efficiency in their interaction with the courts of subregional economic communities. The article demonstrates the existence of complex and contradictory problems, which solution affect the eventual fate of the courts of African subregional economic communities. The solution of these issues depends on reaching consensus with regards to acceptance of rulings rendered by subregional economic communities as final, as well as permission to file complaints to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights for separate individuals.