The right to access to essential goods and the sub-Saharan Africa’s courts: a comparative outlook

The paper is aimed at outlining some trends in the legal enforcement of the right to access to essential goods in sub-Saharan Africa, through the analysis of some judicial decisions issued during the early stage of the Covid-19 Pandemic. The analysis is framed within the assessment of some general evolutions of African constitutionalism and of its specific stance towards states’ interventionism for socio-economic development. At the same time, a comparative inquiry into the decisions examined presents some elements to draw some conclusions concerning the potential and obstacles of the evolution of an original model of African development law.