SOURCES OF NIGERIAN LAW

SOURCES OF NIGERIAN LAW

Basically there are five sources of Nigerian law namely: Customary and Islamic Law, Received English law, Nigerian local legislation including delegated legislation, judicial precedents, law reports and textbooks.

          Customary law are rules and regulations recognized by the indigenous people to whom they relates as regulating heir conducts in specific areas. Such areas may include marriage, divorce, succession and inheritance land and chieftancy matters. For any customary rule to have the force of law, it must not be repugnantto natural justice, equity and good conscience. Secondly such rule must not be the existing native law or custom and not the nature law and custom of ancient time.

          Customary law has to be proved to be in existence in any society before non-customary courts either through the testimony of witnesses who are considered versed in that area or through the use of books and manuscript. Proof of a particular custom by evidence can be dispensed with if judicial notice has been taken of it in such circumstances stated in the Evidence Act.

          By virtue of being a British Colony, English law became a source of Nigerian law and thus applicable in the country through the mechanism of local legislation. The English laws so received in the country, consist of;

1.     Common law of England/.

2.     The doctrines of Equity.

3.     The statute of General Application in force in England or the 1^st of January 1890.

4.     Statute and subsidiary legislation specified matters.

Osbone C. Jin  A. Gv. John Holt (19102 NLR 1 at P 21) laid down two criteria for determining statute of General Application. By what court is the statutes applied in England, b) to what classes of the community in England does it apply. There are instance where statues do not meet the above tests but are still accepted as statues of General Application (See IGPV) this could be so if its application would produce manifestly unreasonable results contrary to the intent of the statue.

Specifically what constitue aprecedent for later judgement the raio decident such statement made by the judge in passing or by the way in the course of delivering his judgement which is not strictly relevant to the issue before him is an obiterdictum. Law reporting is essential for the growth of case law system. There have been private, governments imitative in this direction. On point of law, especially where such points have not been previously decided in the court or where the position of the law on the point is not clear,  courts may turn to able authors for assistance and guidance.

Classification of Nigerian Law

The Nigeria Law may be divided into criminal and civil law. Criminal law defines those conducts which are forbidden by the state and prescribes punishment for the breaches. Civil law on the other hand is law governing conducts which are generally not punished by the state. Mort legal systems distinguish between civil and criminal proceeding. While criminal proceedings are instituted principally for the purpose of punishing wrong doers civil proceedings are usually taken by individuals through the state may be a party to it. Civil law may be classified as Public Law, Private Law and Business Law e.t.c. These classification however overlap are Business Law Subjects and are at the same private law.

          Public law is that part of the civil law which primarily focuses on the states, its organizes, institution and relationship with the individuals. It includes Constitution Law, Administrative Law, Revenue Law e.t.c. Private law is the law which deals generally with the relationship between individuals. It includes law of trust, property law e.t.c.

          Business law is the generic names for the legal subjects which regulate business and commercial transactions between two or more parties. It consists of Agency, Banking, Company, Consumer Protection, Contract, Economic Torts, Taxation, Commercial arbitration, Sales of Goods,    Insurance, Hire Purchases, Partnership e.t.c.

          In conclusion the sources of labour law in Nigeria, broadly individual employment law deals essentially with the employer-employee relationship and the ordinary incidents of that relationship such as the rights and obiligations of the employee and the employer, the mode of termination and the question of employment security.