De la quasi-souveraineté à la souveraineté normative : l'émergence des États africains à l'épreuve du droit international contemporain [From quasi-sovereignty to normative sovereignty: the emergence of African states in the context of contemporary international law]

Ismail Amir Sido; Hassan Ali Adamou; ISMAIL AMIR SIDO

Article Details

De la quasi-souveraineté à la souveraineté normative : l'émergence des États africains à l'épreuve du droit international contemporain [From quasi-sovereignty to normative sovereignty: the emergence of African states in the context of contemporary international law]

Authors:

Ismail Amir Sido | Hassan Ali Adamou | ISMAIL AMIR SIDO

Publisher:

African Journal of Management, Engineering and Technology

Journal:

African Journal of Management, Engineering and Technology Vol.4 Issue 2, pp.299-314

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

5/2026

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

2001840279

Abstract:

 The contemporary trajectory of African states' emergence in global geopolitics cannot be fully grasped without a rigorous analysis of the legal path dependencies that have structured the continent's international status since the Berlin Conference (1884–1885). This article argues that African emergence is first and foremost a legal project of normative autonomisation, whose scope remains conditioned by the capacity of state and institutional actors to articulate the persistence of structural legacies with the dynamics of institutional innovation driven by the African Union. Drawing upon an unprecedented dialogue between Douglass North's institutionalist doctrine (1990) and Robert Jackson's internationalist doctrine (1990), the article maps the gradual transition from an inherited 'quasi-sovereignty' — characterised by formal international recognition devoid of material effectivity — towards a normative sovereignty under construction, whose principal vectors are the Constitutive Act of the African Union (2000), Agenda 2063 and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The demonstration relies on a hybrid methodology combining historical analysis, conventional hermeneutics and a structural approach. It concludes that the normative refoundation currently underway, while not severing colonial legacies, substantially redirects their trajectory, opening the way for a reconfiguration of Africa's place in the international legal order.

Article Details

De la quasi-souveraineté à la souveraineté normative : l'émergence des États africains à l'épreuve du droit international contemporain [From quasi-sovereignty to normative sovereignty: the emergence of African states in the context of contemporary international law]

Authors: Ismail Amir Sido | Hassan Ali Adamou | ISMAIL AMIR SIDO

Publisher: African Journal of Management, Engineering and Technology

Journal: African Journal of Management, Engineering and Technology Vol.4 Issue 2, pp.299-314

Document Type: Article

Publication Date: 5/2026

Document Language: English

Document ID (Org No.): 2001840279

Issues

Authors:

Ismail Amir Sido | Hassan Ali Adamou | ISMAIL AMIR SIDO

Publisher:

African Journal of Management, Engineering and Technology

Journal:

African Journal of Management, Engineering and Technology Vol.4 Issue 2, pp.299-314

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

5/2026

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

2001840279