Written by leading experts including the president of the East African Community Court of Justice (EACJ), national judges, academics and law practitioners; East African Community Law discusses the nature of EAC law, free movement and competition law as well as the reception of EAC law in partner states. Uniquely, the book also provides a systematic comparison with EU law and more widely, lessons learned from the EU experience.
 
East African Community Law is published by Brill Nijhoff and co-edited by a team of EAC and EU experts, including Tom Ottervanger (Of Counsel at Allen & Overy, Professor of European Law at Leiden University, deputy-Justice at the Court of Appeal at the Hague and director of the Leiden Center for the Comparative Study of EAC law) as well as the president and founding registrar of the EACJ and Dr Cuyvers of Leiden University. The support of the European Union, Leiden University and Allen & Overy has made it possible to publish this book online so it is available free of charge for all those who are interested (Open Access).
 
Allen & Overy’s Tom Ottervanger comments “The role of the law and lawyers is crucial to the process of integration, as effective integration requires some form of supranational legal system. Challenges that the EU has faced (and is still facing) such as safeguarding the quality of EU law, monitoring compliance and making EU law binding and enforceable – these are also challenges facing the EAC.

We hope that this book will be a source of information for all those involved in shaping, improving and studying integration in the EAC; and that this publication will act as a tool to better understand and move forward the EAC integration process.”
 
Established in 2000, the EAC aims to further cooperation between its member states, which currently comprise Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Covering an area of over 1.8 million sq. km with a population of over 145 million people, the EAC has already established a Customs Union (2005) and a Common Market (2010) and is in the process of establishing a Monetary Union.