The East African Court of Justice

This chapter discusses how human rights advocates and business actors resort to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ). The EACJ has intermediate authority at a thin-elite level in human rights cases because urban-based, human rights nongovernmental organizations, pro-democracy activists, and governmental officials recognize the legally binding nature of the EACJ’s human rights cases and give effect to its rulings. Human rights advocates have litigated cases in the EACJ, even though the EACJ does not have explicit jurisdiction to decide human rights cases. Business actors in general, and the East African Business Council (EABC) in particular, have eschewed litigating before the EACJ. Over the last decade the EABC has pursued an administrative strategy embodied in the NTB Monitoring Mechanism for monitoring, reporting, and removing nontariff barriers (NTBs). Also discussed is the first case filed by a business actor in 2017 relating to an alleged violation of the EAC’s trade rules.