The Admissibility of Subregional Courts’ Decisions before the African Commission. .. 271 If the case is settled by subregional courts, can such cases be considered as cases that have been settled in accordance with the Constitutive Act of the African Union? Although subregional courts are not organs of the African Union (AU), it could be said that RECs were envisaged within the framework of the AU. For example, Article 3(l) of the Constitutive Act provides that one of the objectives of the AU is to harmonise the activities of RECs. Further evidence that RECs are within the framework of the AU is found in the AU Assembly’s Rules of Procedure.204 Article 34(2) provides that the regulations and directives of the AU Assembly bind RECs. This provision obviously binds organs of RECs, including subregional courts. Article 56(7) of the African Charter prohibits the admissibility of cases that have been settled in accordance with the provisions of the African Charter. subregional courts can settle cases in accordance with the provisions of the African Charter because Article 56(7) of the African Charter does not require that the organ that settles cases in accordance with the African Charter be established by the African Union. Moreover, there is no requirement that such organ should be established on a particular level. Practically speaking, the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, a subregional court, is deciding cases in accordance with the African Charter.205 However, it may be argued that subregional courts were not intended to be included under Article 56(7) because these courts were not established at the time when the African Charter was being drafted. The article only refers to the Organs established by the African Charter or Protocol to the African Charter. In this view, it is only the African Commission or the African Court that can settle cases in accordance with the provisions of the African Charter. This argument which is based on historical circumstances does not render the ‘prudential interpretation’206 of the African Charter invalid. Giving a monopoly of settling matters in accordance with the African Charter to the continental organs alone requires the insertion of the phrase ‘before the organs established by the present Charter’ at the end of Article 56(7) of the African Charter. Thus, the text of the African Charter could be understood as precluding the African Commission or the African Court from admitting cases that have already been decided by subregional courts. 204 Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of the Union, ASS/AU/2(I) - a, Assembly of the African Union, First Ordinary Session 9 - 10 July 2002 Durban, South Africa. 205 Manneh case, supra note 22; Koraou case, supra note 25; SERAP case, supra note 37. 206 Here, ‘Prudential interpretation’ is used to mean the interpretation that allows wise use of the African Court and the African Commission.