Rights
A 1972 constitution, revised 1996 and 2008, over a bijural legal order
The Constitution of 1972 as revised in 1996 created a Constitutional Council, a Senate and elected regional councils, and the 2008 revision removed presidential term limits. The 1996 text also promised decentralisation, largely unimplemented until the 2019 special status granted to the Northwest and Southwest regions during the Anglophone crisis.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — The Conseil constitutionnel rules on constitutionality and electoral disputes; the Cour suprême sits at the head of the ordinary courts.
- Deadline — Constitutional Council review of an election petition: within fifteen days of referral
- Deadline — Presidential term: seven years, renewable without limit since the 2008 revision
Governing law
- Constitution of the Republic of Cameroon1972, revised 1996 and 2008
- Loi n° 2019/024 portant code général des collectivités territoriales décentralisées — special status for the Northwest and Southwest
- Loi n° 2004/004 portant organisation et fonctionnement du Conseil constitutionnel
In practice
Cameroon's constitutional order is unusual in Africa for governing two received legal traditions at once. The Southern Cameroons, administered by Britain, joined the francophone republic in 1961 and brought the common law with it. The 1996 revision recognised that duality in principle, but the practical erosion of common-law procedure in the two anglophone regions — including the posting of civil-law-trained magistrates to common-law courts — was the immediate trigger of the 2016 lawyers' strike and the conflict that followed.