The jurisdictional crisis of the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights

Abstract

This text is an analysis of an important and topical aspect of the international human rights protection in its regional dimension and the contemporary international judiciary. It concerns the jurisdictional crisis of the African Court of Human and Peoples'  Rights, the youngest of the three regional human rights courts currently in operation worldwide. The impasse involves successive countries of the region withdrawing from the authority’s jurisdiction, which is voluntary. This is also one of the fundamental problems the African Court is facing. There are several causes of African states terminating its jurisdiction. The Court’s instability, the loss of the regional states’ trust in the authority or their willingness to evade responsibility for the violations of international legal standards are among the major reasons. The dogmatic-exegetical method, which consists in analysing legal texts, is the key method used to analyse the subject matter and to advance conclusions. Polish and international literature serves to present the state of knowledge about the issues discussed.