Sources of Law

The legal sources literally refer where, how and by what authority a particular rule of is made and becomes legally effective to regulate human conduct.

The formal sources of law include the statutory enactments of a Country, judicial precedents and local customs. The historic source of is concerned with the revolutionary process of any particular rule or principle of law, and includes customs, moral and religious beliefs, business practices, human development, conscience or reasoning, as well as social, economic and environmental factors or circumstances that influenced the origin of any particular rule or principle of law. The literary source of law is concerned with the written documents that contain authoritative rules or principles of law and refers specifically to opinions or statements of legal rules and principles by jurists in law textbooks, statute books, law journals, law reports, law digests, periodicals, encyclopedias and legal letters. The entire body of law is derived and developed from these various sources.

The entire sources of Nigerian law is classified into two which include, primary and secondary sources.

Primary sources of Nigerian law

Primary sources of Nigerian law could be referred to the fundamental sources of law that have ground and binding significance. That is to say, primary sources of law constitute ground norms, precedents and binding authorities that determine the decision or judgment of the court. Primary Sources of law include the following:

1. The Constitution
2. Nigerian Legislation
3. Nigerian Case Law or Judicial Precedent
4. Received English Law
5. Nigerian Customary Law and Islamic Law

1. Constitution

The current constitution is the 1999 Nigerian Constitution which came into operation on May 29, 1999. The Constitution has undergone through several amendments.

2. Nigerian Legislation

The Nigerian Legislation constitutes the Act of parliament of the National Assembly, which has power to make laws for the Federation, and the State House of Assembly for each State of the Federation. The current legislation in force at the federal level is largely contained in the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990 (LFN). Laws made after the 1990 law revision exercise of the federal laws are to be found in the Annual Volumes of the Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Federal laws under the Military, known as Decrees, and state laws, known as Edicts, form the bulk the primary legislation. Most of the pre-1990 Decrees were incorporated into the LFN and those patently incompatible with the new constitutional order were repealed on the eve of the inauguration of a new democratic government in May 1999.

On the aspect of State House of Assembly, each of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja respectively, has its own laws. Some states have in recent times made some changes in their laws and factored them in a compact and comprehensive form to facilitate easy access. Legislation has been described as the most important source of Nigerian law. This is partly because all other sources of Nigerian law are considered as such by virtue of a piece of legislation or the other.

3. Nigerian Case Law or Judicial Precedent

The Supreme Court is the highest court of the land. It replaced the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1963 as the final court of appeal. The Court of Appeal (originally known as the Federal Court of Appeal) was established in 1976 as a national penultimate court to entertain appeals from the High Courts, which are the trial courts of general jurisdiction. The Court of Appeal is found in 17 Judicial Divisions across the states of the Federation with Headquarters in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory but still functions as one indivisible court (Court of Appeal Nigeria, 2015). The Court of Appeal and all lower courts (Customary, Magistrate and High Courts) are bound by the decisions of this Supreme Court. The High Courts and other courts of coordinate and subordinate jurisdiction are equally bound by the decisions of the Court of Appeal. The doctrine of judicial precedents does not apply rigidly to certain courts like the customary/area courts and the Sharia courts in Nigeria. Nigerian Case Laws or Precedents are published in a documents known as Law Reports.

4. Received English Law

“Received English law” refers to the rules of law and legal principles that have their roots or origin in England but were adopted into Nigerian legal system to form part of Nigerian laws. The influence of colonialism resulted to adoption of received English law into Nigerian legal system upon Independence in 1960.

Components of “Received English law” include the common law, the doctrines of equity, statutes of general application in force in England on January 1, 1900, statutes and subsidiary legislation on specified matters and English law (statutes) made before October 1, 1960 and extending to Nigeria which are not yet repealed. Laws made by the local colonial legislature are treated as part of Nigerian legislation. The failure to review most of these laws especially in the field of criminal law has occasioned the existence of what may be described as impracticable laws or legal provisions which are honoured more in breach than in observance. Despite the influence of English Law, the Nigerian legal system is very complex because of legal pluralism.

5. Nigerian Customary Law

Nigerian Customary law refers to a system of law that evolved from the tradition, culture or customs of the indigenous communities of Nigeria used to regulate the conduct of the people. Customary law is the body of legal rules at the grassroots. According to Black Law Dictionary (2009), Customary law refers to law consisting of customs that are accepted as legal requirements or obligatory rules of conduct; practices and beliefs that are so vital and intrinsic a part of social and economic system that they are treated as if they were laws. In other words, customary law is characterised with legal obligations or requirement that emanated from people’s norms, traditions and custom. Customary law is a system of law that reflects the social, cultural, economic, political values and belief system of the people.

Secondary sources of Nigerian law

Secondary sources of law are the sources of law that do not carry a dominant legal weight and binding effect. The legal authorities contain in these kind of sources are diluted and persuasive which are not binding on any court of law. Secondary sources of law are less significance sources of law that carry barely persuasive legal authority or effect and are therefore, not binding on any court of law. Secondary sources can be useful in court of law or resorted to where the court finds the opinion or fact underlying the authority contained therein. Secondary sources can also be referred to in court if it supports the authorities of the primary sources. Examples of secondary sources of Nigerian law includes:

1. Decisions of courts of foreign countries;
2. International conventions, treaties, and resolutions of international bodies;
3. Statements or opinions of jurists and learned authors contained in law textbooks, journal, periodicals, dictionaries, letters, speeches, and interviews;
4. Legal opinions contained in nullified judgments.

Secondary sources of law also include all sources that provide helpful introductions to legal subjects, synopses of decisions, statutes, and regulations in a given field, analyses of trends and historical background of law, explanation of new or difficult concepts, descriptions and analysis of the law and its developments and citations to primary sources through footnotes and annotations.