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

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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.