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193.More information
Established to resolve disputes arising from the application and interpretation of the texts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the ECOWAS Court of Justice (ECOWASCJ) is entitled since 2005 to hear cases of human rights violations, which are contrary to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. Thus, when facing a case of slavery between the Republic of Niger and Ms. Hadijatou Mani Koraou, it ruled in favor of the latter, based exclusively on the jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, which had however expressed reservations about the widespread conception of slavery. Moreover, the jurisprudence and the doctrine of fundamental rights of the individual seem to clash with the said conception. This article gives an overview of the ECOWASCJ and the definition of slavery in various fields of international law. Despite the undoubted merits of the Hadijatou judgment, it suggests that by not considering the jurisprudence and the doctrine of fundamental human rights, the ECOWASCJ adopted a truncated view of slavery and that, therefore, its contribution to the understanding of the definition of slavery in international law must be put into perspective. Finally, the article suggests some ways of improving the overall quality of the work of the ECOWASCJ regarding the protection of fundamental human rights.
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197.More information
In following dialectic reasoning, avenues of analysis are proposed to assess the insolvable contradiction that puts the vectors of globalized expansion at odds with the requisites of the Rule of Law. The issue of their reciprocal compatibility cannot be eluded because the two phenomena are based upon hegemonic premises, which allow them to lay claim to the preeminence of distinct fields. Thus, during the 1990s, the tangible progression of the Rule of Law as a means of expression for constitutional democracy beyond the limited circle of occidental countries contributed to the latent universalization of the principle, but also of the development of a rhetoric that transformed it into a myth that forms the basis of contemporary political debates. The ideas (constitutionalism, political democracy, the « juridical handling » of fundamental freedoms) that nurture discussions on the Rule of Law point the political and institutional practices of sovereign states in a specific direction. Conversely, globalization is associated with the emergence of « borderless laws » and the creation of new machinery for imposing regulations that would reduce state sovereignty in various areas currently under their exclusive jurisdiction. Since the integrity of national legal systems is solidly based upon the prevalence of constitutional standards, the effectiveness of the Rule of Law and constitutionalism may become shaky owing to the multiplication of legal systems in potential competition with one another. Globalization offers fertile ground for devising various scenarios wherein states no longer have precedence over the dynamics for creating standards or setting reference points. If this analysis highlights the exacerbation of many contradictions, it correspondingly underscores the complementarity arising from the limits of the State being outpaced by the classical sources of international law. Between the globalization of the Rule of Law and its correlative integration into the multiform realities of globalization, current transformations demonstrate the need for reformulating the Rule of Law.
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199.More information
The contributions of the allied military forces carrying out operations in the Balkans, in the Mediterranean, in Afghanistan and in Iraq are clear illustrations of the increasingly onerous tasks assumed by NATO in various regions of the world. In order to properly fulfill these duties, the Alliance has undertaken a process of transformation and renewal. This trend, initiated at the Washington Summit of 1999, was continued at the Prague Summit of November 2002. The complete reorganization of NATO's structures represents not only a new vision for the Alliance but also a disruption of sorts in light of the original fundamental objective of the Alliance. The setting up of this "new" NATO has been incremental and it is mainly due to the creation of the NATO Response Force and to the introduction of a revised command structure that the Alliance is now able to react to the new security environment and to pursue new types of missions. Consequently, despite the transformation it is presently undergoing, NATO has been able to adapt to the changing strategic context by accepting missions such as the fight against terrorism and by entering new theatres of operation such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Darfour.
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