ABSTRACT
Scholars of African law have always recognised the significance of group and community rights and powers in the African legal system, as opposed to the Western individualistic legal systems. The colonial enterprise in Africa, however, changed the dynamics by fostering a sense of shared aspirations among the people of Africa, albeit within the artificially drawn boundaries of the colonial masters. One of the consequences of colonisation is the adoption of the concept of Pan-Africanism. The divergence in approach to integration was somewhat overcome with the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963. An attempt to review the Charter establishing the OAU to make it more functional and relevant to modern Africa was made with the establishment of the OAU Charter Review Committee in 1980. However, until it ceased to exist in 1996, the review exercise made no significant impact. Nevertheless, the resolutions and treaties of the OAU form part of the corpus of African Union law.
