The Treaty for East African Co-operation and the Unification of Commercial Laws

One of the less publicized provisions of the East African Treaty for Co-operation, Article 29 provides in a very general way for co-operation and co·irsultation among the partner states on a number of matters that can potentially affect the efficient operation of the common market. Subsection (b) of that Article provides that "the Counsel to the Community shall advise the Partner States on, and endeavour to promote, the harmonization of the commercial laws in operation in the Partner States." This provision is reinforced by Article 2 of the Treaty, which lists the general aims of the Community and includes among them "the approximation of the commer· cia! laws of the Partner States." I The purpose of this short paper is to discuss the impact these provisions may or should have on the existing commercial laws in East Africa. The non-customary laws of the different jurisdictions in East Africa are already similar in most important respects. There are a number of reasons for this similarity, the most important being the basic similarity in the colonial experiences of the jurisdictions. The commercial laws of all . East Africa jurisdictions have been mostly drafted by British civil servants who had a common social and educational background, who tended to consult with counterpart officials in other colonies, and who were often advised about the content of commercial laws by the Colonial Office in London that was charged with administering all the British colonies.' Despite the basic similarity of the commercial laws, however, there have been recur· rent efforts to achieve even greater uniformity in the past few decades. The 1945 Colonial Office paper proposing the establishment of an East African High Commission suggested that the High Commission have considerable power to legislate in commercial law areas,' but this proposal was subsequently dropped and the 1947 Order in Council did not vest such power in the High Commission that it established.• The 1961 Raisman report, which immediately preceded the foundation of E.A.C.S.O., again proposed that the Central Legislative Assembly be empowered to enact