3

It has always been the ambition of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to build a common investment market capable of stimulating investment flows in the region. But the construction of such a market requires an enactment of communitarian investment rules. This regional economic community then embarked on a process of harmonization of its Member States’ investment rules and policies, which resulted in the conclusion of the 2008 Supplementary Act adopting community rules on investment and rules, and the modalities of their implementation. A decade later, attentive to the economic and socio – political developments in its Member States, the ECOWAS adopted a common investment Code : the ECOWIC. The present paper aims to analyze the substantial aspects of the novelties brought by this new investment legal instrument. With its innovative provisions, the ECOWIC marks a departure from the ‘ old-style’ international investment agreements and thus deserves a special attention.