Bibliographie sélective OHADA

This study is situated in the context of the regionalisation of international criminal law. It deals with the development of African international criminal law under the aegis of the African Union (AU). It aims to examine the factors which inform this development, the concept and the content of regional law so laid down for the African continent. The primary objective has been the exploration of theoretical and practical bases for the establishment of a viable system of African regional criminal justice in order to deal with crimes against peace and security in Africa, which put in danger African regional public order. The thesis also examines the relationship between African international criminal law and the global system of international criminal justice, currently dominated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the United Nations Security Council. The systemic analysis of these different issues have enabled to reach three main conclusions. First, the development of African international criminal law is not simply a conjectural consequence of the crisis observed within global international criminal law. It is also and chiefly the result of the policy of self-reliance of the AU and its member states aiming to protect and defend African regional public order through the recourse to regional institutions of criminal accountability. Second, the African Union is consequently promoting a system of African regional criminal justice based on three optional models of justice, namely the delegation of jurisdiction to a member state, the creation of hybrid courts with participation of regional judges and the establishment of a regional criminal court. Together with those crimes against peace and security that are of specific concern to the African continent, these models of justice form the core of the content of African international criminal law. However, the viability of the system towards delivering efficient justice remains problematic. There are numerous challenges to overcome, including ratifying the Malabo Protocol of June 2014 instituting the “Criminal Court of the African Union”, promoting judicial cooperation of African states and finding financial resources to support the Court’s actions. Third, African international criminal law is not a replacement of global international criminal law in the continent. There is rather a coexistence of norms and institutions which commands a certain degree of coordinated relationships to avoid competing actions and so inefficiency of justice. This thesis discusses two main approaches to consistent relationships between African regional criminal law and the global system of international criminal justice, namely the hierarchical model and the cooperative approach. It proposes a third alternative approach, that is, the regionalisation of the ICC in conjunction with the principle of regional territoriality.