ABSTRACT
As part of a growing interest in experiments with regional cooperation and inte-
gration across the world, this article explores recent efforts towards legal harmoni-
sation in Africa. Despite important similarities, in particular those based on a
common colonial heritage, there are nonetheless many differences between the
legal frameworks of African states. In most of these countries there is legal plural-
ism: legislation adopted by parliament exists side by side with indigenous custom-
ary law, common law, Islamic law, etc.1 Moreover, in federal states there is both
state law and federal law. This article deals with an additional layer of legal plur-
alism, namely laws adopted by regional intergovernmental organisations, and dis-
cusses how such international/supranational legislation is integrated into national
systems.
