The continuing relevance of customary arbitration in Nigeria: Critical Evaluation of Contemporary Developments (Forthcoming in the African Journal of International and Comparative Law 2024) (original) (raw)
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THE SCOPE AND RELEVANCE OF CUSTOMARY ARBITRATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY DISPUTE RESOLUTION IN NIGERIA
This paper reveals the fact that Customary Arbitration existed in Nigeria long before the emergence of the adversarial system of conflict resolution introduced by the British colonial masters. Customary arbitration which is arbitration in dispute founded on the voluntary submission of the parties to the decision of the arbitrators who are either the Chiefs or the Elders of their community, has been widely tested before the courts in recent times. The paper demonstrates the validity of customary arbitration proceedings which is anchored on the fulfillment of prescribed conditions which have been pointed out in a plethora of cases before the appellate courts in Nigeria. Owing to the evolution of the world, and numerous challenges confronting the practice of customary arbitration, Common Law arbitration has taken the front seat while relegating customary practices to play second fiddle.
Central to the issue of resolution of any disputes is the mechanism adopted in handling it. Customary arbitration is, thus, one of the recognised methods of resolving disputes among the indigenes of Nigeria. Unlike the Western adversarial method of settling disputes under which the winner-takes-all, customary arbitration aimed at reconciling the parties to disputes after effecting settlement. The question, however, is whether customary arbitration has any relevance among Nigerian indigenous communities and whether it has made any impact on the maintenance of societal equilibrium. This paper, therefore, examined the issues involved in customary arbitration such as the ingredients that make it work, conditions of its validity and its effect on the state of the society with a view to making it work more effectively among the indigenes.
THE JUDICIARY AND THE ROLE OF CUSTOMARY COURTS IN NIGERIA
Global Journal of Politics and Law Research, 2017
ABSTRACT: Some researchers have opined that Customary Law regulates the lives of about 80% of Nigerians and that is why it is being argued that Nigerian courts should enforce Customary Laws. The Constitution of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) has made adequate provisions for States, through their respective Houses of Assembly to establish Area and Customary Courts to hear and determine matters over persons subject to native laws and customs prevailing in the areas of their jurisdiction. These courts being close to the grassroots, citizens, can safely be referred to as grassroots Courts. It is the role of these Courts in the Nigerian legal system that this article sets out to examine. The paper also considers the applicability of Evidence Act to Customary and Area Courts and discusses whether the concept of right to fair hearing is applicable or not to these courts. The paper also examines appeals from the Customary Court.
A butterfly that thinks itself a bird: the identity of customary courts in Nigeria
Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, 2019
Over the past 600 years, African states have been subjected to powerful influences of globalisation such as the slave trade, colonialism, transcultural exchange, and the law and development movement. These influences, which reflect in transplanted European laws masquerading as state laws, are steadily eroding the identity of indigenous African laws. So, to what extent do customary courts in Nigeria reflect indigenous law identity? This unexplored question is significant for scholarly and policy perceptions of legal pluralism in post-colonial states. These perceptions tend to favour conflict of laws, rather than the dialogue occurring between indigenous laws and state laws in intersectional social fields. Informed by case analysis, interviews, and archival searches, this article presents Nigerian customary courts as Anglicised courts pretending to be indigenous courts. It argues that customary courts illustrate indigenous law's adaptation to socioeconomic changes. In exposing state laws as a key component of these changes, the article highlights the ways customary court actors engender behavioural changes that reveal the adaptive nature of normative interaction in post-colonial societies. It suggests that the adaptive interface of state laws and indigenous laws offers a theoretical platform for legal integration in sub-Saharan Africa.
Constructing the Road to Arbitral Prevalence: The Arbitration Law of Lagos State 2009 in Perspective
Despite the rising profile of arbitration as an alternative means of commercial disputes resolution, Nigeria continues to grapple with consequences of the constitutional architecture under the 1999 Constitution in respect of legislative competence to make laws on the subject matter of arbitration. The position remains uncertain in the absence of any definitive pronouncement by the Nigerian Supreme Court. The conventional, but flawed, wisdom of a perceived dichotomy between international and interstate commercial arbitration and intrastate domestic arbitration, together with a misapplication of the Constitutional Law principle of “covering the field” to the debate, has the potential of stifling the tide in favour of arbitration as an alternative to litigation in Nigeria. This article contends that the initiative by Government of Lagos State of Nigeria in enacting the Lagos State Arbitration Law 2009 is a welcome development. It concludes that the Law, with its innovatory provisions, is valid irrespective of judicial pronouncements by the Nigerian Court of Appeal in an earlier case, which may seemingly cast doubt on the legislative competence of the state in passing the Law. It is, however, imperative that the uncertainty on this issue be resolved along the lines suggested in this article sooner rather than later.