Rivers State was created out of the former Eastern Nigeria on 27 May 1967 by virtue of the States (Creation and Transitional Provisions) Decree No. 14 of 1967, and inherited Eastern Nigeria legislation in accordance with section 1(5) of the said Decree. Consequently, legislation applicable to Rivers State as at 27 May 1967 consisted of the Laws contained in The Revised Edition of The Laws of Eastern Nigeria 1963 and those enacted between 1963 and 1967. Thereafter, Edicts were promulgated by the successive Military Governors of Rivers State between 1968 and 28 May 1999, interspersed with brief periods of democratic Government that enacted Laws. The first and only revision of the Laws of Rivers State of Nigeria was published as The Laws of Rivers State of Nigeria 1999 containing legislation still in force at that time. It should be noted that by virtue of section 3 of the Revised Edition (Laws of Rivers State of Nigeria) Law 1991, there may be Laws which, although omitted in The Laws of Rivers State of Nigeria 1999, still have the force of law, just like those included in it. Unfortunately, there is an operational disconnect between the enactment of legislation and their publication in the official form either in the Official Gazette or in bound annual volumes as required by law.Consequently, it becomes a Herculean task to search for every piece of legislation which may be hidden in volumes of files containing signed copies or among thousands of copies of the Official Gazette littered in several locations! Herein lies one aspect of the indispensability of this book, the first edition of which was published in 1994. Without this book, citizens, businesses, organisations, law enforcement agencies, lawyers, Customary Court Judges, Magistrates, High Court Judges, Federal High Court Judges, Justices of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, various Rivers State Government Ministries and Departments, etc. may not be aware of some of the existing laws of Rivers State that are in force. The Author Dr Leesi Ebenezer Mitee holds a doctoral degree (PhD) of Tilburg University, The Netherlands; Master of Laws degree (LLM) of the University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom; Barrister-at-Law postgraduate professional law practice certificate (BL) of the Nigerian Law School, Lagos, Nigeria; Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB) and Higher National Diploma (HND) in Town Planning and Country Planning, both of the Rivers State University, Nigeria. Leesi, a former legal research national consultant to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)on the 1998 PCASED project and a legal research consultant to the government of Rivers State of Nigeria on the Laws of Rivers State, is the global pioneer advocate of the universal recognition of the right of free access to public legal information as a stand-alone or substantive human right. He discussed the concept of free access to public legal information and the proposal for its universal recognition elaborately in his 628-page PhD thesis, The Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information: Proposals for its Universal Recognition and for Adequate Public Access. His Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information (HURAPLA) website ( publiclegalinformation.com/ ) is dedicated to actualising the law-reform and policy-relevant proposals and recommendations in his PhD thesis. Dr Mitee's special research interests include different issues in the concept of the human right of free access to public legislation; legal informatics or legal information technology (the application of information technology to legal processes and specialised legal information systems); public access to indigenous customary law; indigenous rights; and legal systems. More resources on Dr Leesi Ebenezer Mitee's books are available on his Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information (HURAPLA) website ( publiclegalinformation.com/ ) and PublishThem.Com website ( publishthem.com/ ).

Volume 1 on public law provides an introduction to the Nigerian legal system. The various chapters deal with: introduction and sources of law; jurisprudence and Nigerian perspectives; African customary law; Islamic law; comparative constitutionalism and Nigerian perspectives; citizenship, immigration and administrative law; judicial system and legal profession; criminal law, evidence and civil procedure; statutory marriage and divorce laws; customary marriage and divorce; marriage and divorce under Islamic law; matters of children; gender and law in Nigeria with emphasis on Islamic law. Volume 2 has 25 chapters on private law that includes security of the environment and environmental law, land and property administration, commercial business and trade laws, communication, media and press laws, transportation and carrier laws, law enforcement, armed forces and military laws, investments, and intellectual property.

The Republic of Biafra lasted for less than three years, but the war over its secession would contort Nigeria for decades to come. Samuel Fury Childs Daly examines the history of the Nigerian Civil War and its aftermath from an uncommon vantage point – the courtroom. Wartime Biafra was glutted with firearms, wracked by famine, and administered by a government that buckled under the weight of the conflict. In these dangerous conditions, many people survived by engaging in fraud, extortion, and armed violence. When the fighting ended in 1970, these survival tactics endured, even though Biafra itself disappeared from the map. Based on research using an original archive of legal records and oral histories, Daly catalogues how people navigated conditions of extreme hardship on the war front, and shows how the conditions of the Nigerian Civil War paved the way for the country's long experience of crime that was to follow.

Includes entries for maps and atlases.

This book focuses on the continued impact of British colonial legacy on the rule of law in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. The legal system is intended to protect regular citizens, but within the majority of Africa the rule of law remains infused with Eurocentric cultural and linguistic tropes, which can leave its supposed beneficiaries feeling alienated from the structures intended to protect them. This book traces the impact, effect, opportunities, and challenges that the colonial legacy poses for the rule of law across Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. The book examines the similarities and differences of the colonial legacy on the current legal landscape of each nation and the intersection with the rule of law. This important comparative study will be of interest to scholars of Political Science, International Studies, Law, African Politics, and British Colonial History.

This important work, originally published in 1963, examines the social bases, strategies and structures of Nigerian political parties during the final phase of British colonial rule. As Professor Sklar explains in a new introduction for this edition, the defining characteristics of political parties today have been shaped by the intellectual origins of the independence era parties. This seminal volume is an essential tool for understanding the political and social reality of contemporary Nigeria.

This is the first in a series of annual volumes which aim to review the principal legal developments that take place in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. This series is intended to enable those who have an academic or professional interest in African law to keep abreast of changes in the various branches of the different legal systems of Africa.

This book, which relies on primary and secondary printed sources and a series of interviews with affected persons, lawyers, judges, and customary court presidents in Nigeria, focuses on the place of due process in the Nigerian legal system. Uwakah is concerned about the abuse of this important fundamental right in his country. The purpose of the book is to examine how due process operates in Nigeria and whether the coexistence of the customary law, the English common law, the Moslem law, and the martial law systems in Nigeria hinders or enhances due process in the country. Finally, the study investigates the suitability of the British version of due process to Nigeria, since the concept is imported to the country. The book concludes that the British version of due process is unsuitable to Nigeria because the country's political, economic, social, and religious backgrounds substantially differ from those of Britain. This conclusion is premised on the consensus of the interviewees. Uwakah recommends the country's immediate transition from military to civilian rule.