Legal Architecture of Digital Trade in East African Community: Emerging Issues and Persistent Challenges

Résumé

Digital technology has, over time, shaped all sectors virtually within the global terrain. One of these sectors that has had its fair share is the economic sector, most especially trading within the global community. Digital economic trade is considered a major driver of regional cooperation and integration in the East African Community (EAC). However, to solidify and address the uniformity of digital trade in EAC, several regional laws have been adopted. Despite these laws, there seem to exist several legal and socio-economic challenges. Hence, it is in view of this that this study seeks to examine the EAC laws on digital trade, prospects and challenges. The study adopts a doctrinal method guided by the PRISMA Guide in obtaining and screening data from primary and secondary research materials. Hence, 8 laws, 8 books, 35 articles, 12 theses/dissertations and 10 reports were relied on, respectively. The data obtained were analyzed through descriptive and analytical methods. The study found that digital trade in EAC provides a lot of potential for ease of trading, and the current EAC laws support a unified digital market. However, the study further identifies that the laws are not comprehensive enough to address current digital technology challenges as they exist in soft law. Also, limited enforcement and unequal digital infrastructure could result in a major barrier. The study concludes that to address these challenges, there is a need for incorporating provisions within the laws that will address the gaps, identify, support and strengthen institutional enforcement capacity and cooperation towards lending support as it concerns digital infrastructure among member states.

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