This book is perhaps the first single attempt to undertake a global study of the Treaty establishing the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in its political, economic, legal and institutional implications. It traces, in the first part, the historical and political antecedents of integrative efforts in the West African sub-region prior to the ECOWAS, describing the political environment and outlining the causes of failures of previous attempts of west African regionalism, the book then proceeds further to critically examine, in some details, the political, economic, and social implications of the Treaty of ECOWAS, with an in-depth study of its legal provisions, outlining the co-operative strategy for ECOWAS regional development and its attendant consequences in terms of economic development and cultural changes in West Africa.