'African Union Law': Creativity in Norm Generation to Solve African Problems

The pioneering concept of African Union Law (provisionally defined for the purpose of this project as the bodies of treaties, resolutions and decisions that have direct and indirect application to the member States of the African Union) is currently underexplored and underdeveloped. However, it has the potential to be ground-breaking with far reaching implications. This Network initiative will explore the emergence of AU law as a new legal order and its implications for existing legal orders in the region. The proposed Network is multidisciplinary, with insights from different disciplines including legal, historical, social, political, economic, sociological and anthropological dimensions. It is thus a core arts and humanities research area that is relevant to the people of African descent but also has significant practical implications for the continent going forward. The concept has important and potentially radical implications for the African continent, its constituent member States and its people in Africa and in the diaspora. It is indisputable that there are specific problems that are peculiar to the African continent. These intractable problems are wide ranging and they include absence and/ or abuse of rule of law, human rights violations, child labour, modern slavery, corruption, racial and gender discrimination and environmental degradation. The idea of the African Union and its institutions as a standard generating institution, similar to the EU (but with its own unique features) is not only novel, but a necessary discourse in the search for collective solutions to these wide ranging problems and issues across the continent. This network will leverage on the availability of academics and researchers of African descent and on Africa in the UK in order to enrich the debate. It will bring together leading experts in areas related to AU Law from policy, practice and academic backgrounds. The practice-relevant, evidence-led focus will enable the Network participants to develop capacity building impacts. By offering new contributions on AU Law, this Network will provide a platform for existing researchers and also for the next cohort of researchers in this rapidly developing field. It is envisaged that the Network will also lead to the development of new curricula on AU Law in the UK and across Africa thereby creating a new pool of students, researchers and expertise. The Network shall also facilitate the establishment of an enduring relationship with key institutions in Africa.

The research Network is designed to have direct impact on the development of the emergent concept of AU Law, its implications and practical application. The outputs from this Network will not only be policy and academic orientated but will also be of practical benefit. It will lead to a deeper understanding of the concept of AU Law and its practical applications.

In the short term, the Network shall raise awareness about the emergent African Union Law among interested organisations such as the member states of the African Union itself, Non-Governmental Organisations such as the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa and the Socio - Economic Right and Accountability Project and foreign institutions that closely deal with Africa such as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, UK; Department for International Development, UK; US Agency for International Development and the United Nations. The impact advisor and members of the advisory team have links to some of these institutions and will help in direct engagement with them. This awareness will also be beneficial to education and research institutions who will tap into the new knowledge emerging from this Network. Furthermore, for participants, the Network will equip them with the ability to offer advise to interested institutions based on the new expertise that will emerge from this project.

In the medium term, this Network will facilitate the development of new curricula in African Union Law. This will lead to an expansion of offerings in African Studies in education and training institutions globally such as The Institute for Governance, Humanities and Social Sciences - Pan African University, University of Lagos, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of Hull and University of Sussex.

The Network will also be relevant to the practice of African Union Law because of the impact of its effect on the legal order of member States. In order to facilitate this, as further detailed in the dissemination section, we will use Nigeria as the pilot study for engagement with legal practitioners. We will share and exchange information from the research with key institutions such as the Federal Attorney General's office and the Nigerian Bar Association which could serve as multipliers for impact. Also at the international level, we will be exchanging ideas from the Network with the Commonwealth Lawyers Association and the International Bar Association in order to facilitate feedback from practitioners.

In the long term, this Network will have significant impact on the African Union and its institutions, member States and their institutions, regional groupings in Africa and individual (public) rights and enforcement of such rights in Africa. This is because of the Networks' potential to contribute to the reshaping of the notion of sovereignty and hierarchy of law making in the African continent. The expansion of the idea will have a positive impact on improving governance through supranational norms. It also has the potential to contribute to the opening up of new avenues for expansion of citizen rights and the enforcement of such rights.