Until the Nigerian Evidence Act 2011 was passed into law, which is about a decade after the inter... more Until the Nigerian Evidence Act 2011 was passed into law, which is about a decade after the internet went commercial globally, Nigerian law and courts were reluctant about taking cognizance of internet-generated evidence. In fact, cases involving internet matters were hardly brought before our courts because of the uncertainty of the law. With respect to defamation, things have not significantly changed today. In the build up to the 2015 election, African Independent Television (AIT), a member of Daar Communication Plc. published documentaries about some All Progressive Congress party leaders. These documentaries, which were alleged to have defamatory content, went viral on the internet, with various persons and organizations republishing it. By the extant defamation law, each republication of a defamatory material gives a new cause of action. However, when a chieftain of the party brought action in defamation to the court, only Daar Communication was sued probably because of the perceived problematic intricacies which tag with internet cases. These problematic intricacies which border on how to establish jurisdiction in online defamation cases, how to determine the choice of law that will apply to online defamation cases and how a judgment secured from online cases can be recognized and/or enforced, are the problems which this research seeks to solve. The real challenge is not actually in explaining how the above issues are resolved, rather, it is in evolving clear and certain rules that will produce certainty, clarity and uniformity in the process of resolving legal issues relating to online matters. This, in fact, is the main problem that the research attempts to solve.
Until the Nigerian Evidence Act 2011 was passed into law, which is about a decade after the inter... more Until the Nigerian Evidence Act 2011 was passed into law, which is about a decade after the internet went commercial globally, Nigerian law and courts were reluctant about taking cognizance of internet-generated evidence. In fact, cases involving internet matters were hardly brought before our courts because of the uncertainty of the law. With respect to defamation, things have not significantly changed today. In the build up to the 2015 election, African Independent Television (AIT), a member of Daar Communication Plc. published documentaries about some All Progressive Congress party leaders. These documentaries, which were alleged to have defamatory content, went viral on the internet, with various persons and organizations republishing it. By the extant defamation law, each republication of a defamatory material gives a new cause of action. However, when a chieftain of the party brought action in defamation to the court, only Daar Communication was sued probably because of the perceived problematic intricacies which tag with internet cases. These problematic intricacies which border on how to establish jurisdiction in online defamation cases, how to determine the choice of law that will apply to online defamation cases and how a judgment secured from online cases can be recognized and/or enforced, are the problems which this research seeks to solve. The real challenge is not actually in explaining how the above issues are resolved, rather, it is in evolving clear and certain rules that will produce certainty, clarity and uniformity in the process of resolving legal issues relating to online matters. This, in fact, is the main problem that the research attempts to solve.
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Papers by Michael Usifo
In the build up to the 2015 election, African Independent Television (AIT), a member of Daar Communication Plc. published documentaries about some All Progressive Congress party leaders. These documentaries, which were alleged to have defamatory content, went viral on the internet, with various persons and organizations republishing it.
By the extant defamation law, each republication of a defamatory material gives a new cause of action. However, when a chieftain of the party brought action in defamation to the court, only Daar Communication was sued probably because of the perceived problematic intricacies which tag with internet cases. These problematic intricacies which border on how to establish jurisdiction in online defamation cases, how to determine the choice of law that will apply to online defamation cases and how a judgment secured from online cases can be recognized and/or enforced, are the problems which this research seeks to solve.
The real challenge is not actually in explaining how the above issues are resolved, rather, it is in evolving clear and certain rules that will produce certainty, clarity and uniformity in the process of resolving legal issues relating to online matters. This, in fact, is the main problem that the research attempts to solve.
In the build up to the 2015 election, African Independent Television (AIT), a member of Daar Communication Plc. published documentaries about some All Progressive Congress party leaders. These documentaries, which were alleged to have defamatory content, went viral on the internet, with various persons and organizations republishing it.
By the extant defamation law, each republication of a defamatory material gives a new cause of action. However, when a chieftain of the party brought action in defamation to the court, only Daar Communication was sued probably because of the perceived problematic intricacies which tag with internet cases. These problematic intricacies which border on how to establish jurisdiction in online defamation cases, how to determine the choice of law that will apply to online defamation cases and how a judgment secured from online cases can be recognized and/or enforced, are the problems which this research seeks to solve.
The real challenge is not actually in explaining how the above issues are resolved, rather, it is in evolving clear and certain rules that will produce certainty, clarity and uniformity in the process of resolving legal issues relating to online matters. This, in fact, is the main problem that the research attempts to solve.