Non-Exhaustion of Local Remedies: A Unique Attribute of Ecowas Court of Justice

This article considers the non-exhaustion of local remedies as a unique attribute of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court of Justice (CCJ). Under customary international law, litigants are enjoined to first seek remedy from the national court system of that state before proceeding to file the matter before an international court or tribunal. This is the practice under the European Court of Justice and the African Commission, to mention a few. The main aim of this work is to show clearly that the provisions of the CCJ have gone a step further than the earlier international courts and tribunals before her. Doctrinal method of legal research is adopted, and content analyses of data are also used. The findings of this study clearly show that the method of the CCJ is quite better and more acceptable than that of the European Court and African Commission.