Legal analysis of the prospective monetary union in ECOWAS

The legal analysis of the monetary union under construction in West Africa is important. It involves a comparative analysis of monetary unions in Europe and Africa in particular taking as a paradigm the legal regime of their central banks and Mundell''s theory of optimal monetary zones in order to gain a better insight into the ECOWAS monetary union. Always following a forward-looking approach the aim is to highlight potential obstacles particularly political and legal ones. Solutions were then proposed to overcome these difficulties.