The African Court of Justice was originally intended to be the “principal judicial organ of the Union” (Protocol

Protocol (politics)

Protocol can mean any logbook or other artifact of a political meeting between persons from different nations, such as the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change. The most notorious example of a forged logbook is "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion"....

 of the Court of Justice

Court of Justice

Court of Justice may refer to:*Caribbean Court of Justice*Court of Justice of the European Union*International Court of Justice*Court of Justice *Ontario Court of Justice...

 of the African Union

African Union

The African Union is a union consisting of 54 African states. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established on 9 July 2002, the AU was formed as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity...

, Article 2.2) with authority to rule on disputes over interpretation of AU treaties.

A protocol to set up the Court of Justice was adopted in 2003, and entered into force in 2009. It was, however, superseded by a protocol creating the African Court of Justice and Human Rights, which will incorporate the already established African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights

African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights

The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights was a regional court that was created initially to make judgments on African Union states' compliance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights....

 and have two chambers — one for general legal matters and one for rulings on the human rights treaties.

The merger protocol was adopted in 2008. The united court will be based in Arusha, Tanzania.