The Treaty and the partner states
The Treaty was signed in Arusha on 30 November 1999 and entered into force on 7 July 2000. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania were the founding partner states; Rwanda and Burundi joined in 2007, South Sudan in 2016, the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2022 and Somalia in 2024. The Customs Union Protocol of 2005 and the Common Market Protocol of 2010 added free movement of goods, persons, labour, services and capital. Articles 6 and 7 of the Treaty commit every partner state to the rule of law, good governance and the protection of human rights, and the Court has treated those commitments as enforceable.
The East African Court of Justice
The Court sits in Arusha, Tanzania, in a First Instance Division and an Appellate Division. Under Article 27 it interprets and applies the Treaty, and under Article 30 any natural or legal person resident in a partner state may ask it to rule on the legality of an act, regulation, directive, decision or action of a partner state or of a Community institution. The reference must be filed within two months of the act complained of, a deadline the Court applies strictly. The Court does not sit as a court of appeal from national courts; it asks whether the state has kept its Treaty obligations.
The South Sudan judges case
In 2017 the President of South Sudan dismissed 14 justices and judges by decree. Rather than pursue a remedy in the Supreme Court of South Sudan, they took the matter to the East African Court of Justice, which ruled against the dismissal in July 2020. Prof. Jok's 2023 article in the African Journal of International and Comparative Law, Violation of the Constitutional Law and International Provisions in the Dismissal of Justices and Judges from South Sudan Judicial Pillar, explains why the domestic route was closed to them: constitutional immunities protecting the executive from suit, section 33(2) of the Civil Procedure Act 2007, which lets the Minister of Justice stay a case, and impunity within the executive. The case is now the reference point for public officers across the region whose dismissal cannot be challenged at home.
When EAC law matters
- Judges, prosecutors, civil servants and other public officers dismissed or suspended without due process.
- Individuals detained or prosecuted where the national courts offer no effective remedy.
- Businesses facing customs duties, non-tariff barriers or discriminatory treatment contrary to the Customs Union and Common Market Protocols.
- Workers, students and professionals relying on the free movement rights of the Common Market Protocol.
- Governments, parliaments and institutions that need a written opinion on their obligations under the Treaty.
Because of the two-month limit under Article 30, anyone considering a reference should seek advice as soon as the act complained of is known.
