INTRODUCTION
The African Union Commission on International Law was created in 2009 as an independent advisory organ with the mandate of undertaking the progressive development and codification of international law in the African continent.

With a view to facilitating the fulfillment of its mandate as well as attaining its objectives, the AUCIL created a Forum on international law and African Union law. The forum seeks to bring together African scholars, legal experts and practitioners from the continent as well as from the Diaspora and serves as a platform for discussing and interacting on matters of interest for Africa through the prism of international law and the African Union law.

VENUE
The Forum will be held at the Headquarters of the African Union, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

THEME
The selected theme for the Second Edition of the AUCIL forum is: “Law of Regional Integration in Africa”.

BACKGROUND
One of the main objectives of the African Union being the acceleration of the political and socio-economic integration of the continent as enshrined in its Constitutive Act, the chosen theme for the second edition of the forum “law of regional integration in Africa” remains of great relevance.

In 1991 the idea of regional Integration was the central feature of the Abuja Treaty establishing the African Economic Community (AEC). The Abuja Treaty introduced the notion of Regional Economic Communities (RECs) as building blocks of the AEC. The Treaty did not exactly specify the membership of the RECs, but it did indicate that the regional communities would cover North, West, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa. This led to the designation of UMA, ECOWAS, ECCAS, COMESA and SADC as RECs. The Abuja Treaty sets out a number of stages that would ultimately lead to a continental economic and monetary union.

Regional integration remains a key strategy for Africa. Following the Abuja Treaty which provided the guiding principles for Africa’s current integration agenda, the continent has been striving to strengthen its RECs with the view to establishing the AEC. Several of these RECs have established mechanisms and frameworks that led to the creation of free trade areas and customs unions.

OBJECTIVES OF THE FORUM
The second edition of AUCIL forum will focus, inter alia, on the following objectives:
 Raise awareness on the necessity of accelerating regional integration.
 Enlighten African decision makers on legal implications of regional integration.
 Present the steps already achieved towards the African integration.
 Identify ways to accelerate regional integration throughout the continent.

TOPICS
The discussions will focus on regional integration laws, specifically on the following REC’s:
I. General presentation on the Law of integration: Comparative study.
II. Law of integration in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
III. Law of integration in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
IV. Law of integration in the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).
V. Law of integration in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) in the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD).
VI. Law of integration in the East African Community (EAC).
VII. Law of integration in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
VIII. Laws of integration in the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA)
IX. Relationship between laws governing regional integration and continent wide integration laws.

FORMAT OF THE FORUM
The forum will adopt a participatory approach to allow for broad discussions and inputs from all participants.

Each topic consisting of each of the REC’s mentioned above will be treated by a specialist of law of regional integration. The case study shall outline the general characteristics of the laws governing the REC under study and shall be 15 to 20 pages long.

Each study will be subject to comments and observations by another scholar. The comments and observations will be compiled in a short document of 5 pages.

Twenty minutes will be allotted to the author of the case study to present his/her work and 10 minutes for the commentator to present his/her comments and observations.

Thirty minutes will be allotted to general discussion on the topic under study with the rest of the participants.

Summary of the presentation of the main papers and the discussion papers will be made by PowerPoint.

Participants:
Are invited to the Forum scholars, academics and officials working on or dealing with the law of integration in Africa: Legal Counsels of Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the AU members States, Ministries in charge of integration of the AU members States, Diplomatic Institutes in the AU member States, the Permanents Representatives accredited to AU, representatives of International Organizations in Addis Ababa, Representatives of RECs in Addis Ababa, Legal Advisors of RECs, AU Organs, African members of UNILC, African members of ICJ, Faculties of Law in AU member States, African scholars from the continent and the Diaspora, Centers of research on law of integration, etc.

Confirmation of participation:

Confirmation of participation, flight number and arrival time should be communicated to AUCIL Secretariat latest 30 September 2013.

Outcomes of the Forum:
• Identifying the current level of development of the regional integration law developed by the RECs,
• Identifying the strengths and weaknesses/flaws of the law of integration of the RECs,
• Identifying ways and means of overcoming these weaknesses and adopting the appropriate recommendations
• Adopting recommendations on strengthening the relation between the continental law of integration and the RECs law of integration.