At its fifth extraordinary summit held in Sitre, Libya on 2 March 2001, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government (AHSG) of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), representing all the 53 member states, ‘solemnly and proudly’ declared the establishment of the African Union (AU). Following the deposition, by the Federal Republic of Nigeria, of the 36th instrument of ratification with the OAU General Secretariat on 26 April 2001, the Constitutive Act (the Act) of the AU formally came into force on 26 May 2001, in conformity with its Article 28.

In practical terms, international conflicts relating to the flow of trade are unavoidable. Therefore, as stated in Article 3.2 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedure Governing the Settlement of Disputes (‘DSU’ or ‘Understanding’), the ‘[d]ispute settlement system of the [World Trade Organization (“WTO”)] is a central element in providing security and predictability of the multilateral trading system’.

Some three decades ago, two African international legal scholars explored, in separate essays, the impact of the newly independent African states on the development of certain areas of international law. The argument advanced in these discussions was straightforward enough: that the participation of the new African states in the international legal order, together with the unprecedented developments in international organizations and technology, had greatly circumscribed the frontiers of traditional international law; and that Africa, as a continent, had ceased to be merely an object of a Eurocentric international law, and was gradually taking up its place as a subject of, and an active participant in, contemporary universal international law.