For the occasion, on February 25, 2026, in Yaoundé, the Attorney General, Marie Claire Dieudonnée Nseng-Elang, delivered a dense reflection on the notion of public order. A transversal and constitutional approach, at the heart of the contemporary challenges of the Cameroonian rule of law.
On the occasion of the opening of the 2026 judicial year, the Supreme Court of Cameroon placed its reopening under the seal of a fundamental debate: that of the relationship between public order and fundamental freedoms. In her submissions, the Attorney General at the Supreme Court, Marie Claire Dieudonnée Nseng-Elang, proposed a multidisciplinary reading of a legal notion with multiple contours but a common foundation.
In private law, public order refers to the set of mandatory rules that apply to individuals. In public law, it is embodied in the action of the administrative authority, the legislator, and the judge.
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In private international law, it allows for the exclusion of the application of a foreign law deemed contrary to the essential values of the State. As for public international law, it designates superior, non-derogable norms, constituting the foundation of international society. Despite these differentiated approaches, a common thread remains: the safeguarding of a society’s fundamental values.
In Cameroon, the Constitution enshrines fundamental freedoms and affirms the State’s commitment to international human rights instruments. Freedom of expression, association, conscience, or movement constitute the heart of the rule of law. But their exercise sometimes comes into tension with the requirements of maintaining order.
This relationship, the Attorney General emphasized, is first and foremost dialectical. Public order can justify limitations on freedoms, provided they are necessary, proportionate, and based on a real risk of disturbance. The principle remains: “liberty is the rule, detention the exception.” The public prosecutor’s office, a central actor in the criminal justice chain, thus intervenes in cases of flagrante delicto, provisional detention, or restrictive measures, in a delicate balance between hierarchical subordination and independence of speech.
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The relationship can also be ambiguous. Is public order a constraint or a condition for the realization of freedoms? For the General Prosecutor’s Office, the two notions are not opposed: they complement each other. However, their hierarchy remains difficult to decide since they both have constitutional value. It is then up to the judge to arbitrate, on a case-by-case basis.
The Cameroonian legislative framework illustrates this search for balance. The law of December 19, 1990, strictly regulates the use of weapons in maintaining order, which is in principle prohibited except in exceptional and duly regulated circumstances. Similarly, the law of December 23, 2014, on the suppression of acts of terrorism demonstrates a firm response to security threats, while raising the question of the right balance between security and freedoms.
Public safety, health, and morality constitute the three pillars of public order. But in the digital age, health crises, ecological demands, or the fight against terrorism, the challenges are renewed. Public order, Marie Claire Dieudonnée Nseng-Elang insisted, cannot be frozen: it must evolve with new rights and social changes.
Closing the 2025 judicial year and opening that of 2026, the Attorney General recalled that the preservation of the rule of law rests on a demanding combination: protecting social balance without sacrificing freedoms. A permanent adjustment exercise, entrusted to the legislator and, as a last resort, to the judge.
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