What are the Sources of Nigerian Law?

The origin of Nigerian Law can be traced to a French word “Font et Origo” – the fountain of origin. In law, when you write anything in other languages apart from English, you underline or use italic(s). Depending on the contextual usage, the phrase could mean the source of the body of the entire legal system from which the system itself derives its original validity.

In this connection, a source of law is a formal one. It could also mean the physical document or material in which the rule of law is contained. For example; statutes, books, law reports and such other text. It could mean the historical origin of the rule of law, traceable back to the English common law. Among others, it could also mean the font et origo meaning the fountain of the authority of the rule of law.

“Source of Nigerian Law” refers to the materials through which a legal practitioner or a court or judge would find a reliable authority for a particular legal question. By whatever meaning ascribed to it, our pivotal source of law in Nigeria may be identified by the CFRN 1999 which is the grundnorm of the supreme organic law of the land. The sources of Nigerian law can be regarded as springboards from which law emanates. They can be divided into primary and secondary.

Primary sources of Nigerian law can simply be regarded as those sources whose provisions are binding on all courts throughout Nigeria. They include:

1. The ‘Received’ English Law; is the first of its kind (laws received from England during the colonial period). They include- The Common Law of England, Doctrines of Equity and Statutes of General Application (SOGA)
2. Nigerian Legislation/Statute. Laws made by the legislation
3. Delegated Legislation – laws made other than the legislation
4. Nigerian Case Law or Judicial Precedence – like cases must be determined in like manner. A lower court is bound by the decisions of the higher court in the hierarchy. It brings constancy to the law.
5. Customary law: it includes Islamic law in the Northern part of Nigeria.

On the other hand, the secondary sources of Nigerian law are the indirect ways through which we get our law. Save for law reports, secondary sources of Nigerian law are of persuasive authority in the law courts. Law reports are only authoritative due to the fact that they serve as the vehicle through which judicial precedent is carried. Examples of secondary sources of law are:

1. Law reports
2. Textbooks i.e. the legal writings of publicist
3. Legal periodicals
4. Legal dictionary
5. Encyclopaedia of law
6. Newspaper reports
7. Internet
8. International law

The distinction between primary and secondary sources of law is very useful in determining authorities to follow in the law courts. If a case is brought before a court and one party uses a primary source of law as his authority while the other makes use of secondary sources, the scale of justice would tilt in favour of the person who presents primary sources of law. This means that for the primary, they have binding force or effect and for the secondary, they are merely persuasive. Secondary sources of law are only made use of whenever there are no primary sources of law to fall back on.