Name: Ogunmoyero Mobolaji Ayomiposi

Dept: Law
Course: Law 102
Matric no.: 19/law01/180
Legal Method Assignment
Question: Discuss secondary sources of law in Nigeria

Answer:
What Are the Sources of Nigerian Law?
The law is an abstract term. In order to know what comprises the law, you have to derive it
from various places. These places from which the law is derived are aptly described as the
sources of law. Sources of law can be defined as the places to which a legal practitioner or a
judge turns to in order to answer a legal problem. They can be regarded as springboards from
which law emanates. They are the various vehicles through which the law is carried. The
sources of Nigerian law can be divided into primary and secondary.
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 favor of the person who presents primary sources of law.

Primary sources of Nigerian law can simply be regarded as those sources whose provisions
are binding on all courts throughout Nigeria. They include:
 Received English law
 Case law
 Nigerian legislation
 Customary laws.
 International laws.
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:
 Law Reports
 Text Books and Treatises
 Periodicals, Journals, and Legal Digests
 Casebooks
  Legal Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
 Newspapers
Secondary sources of law are only made use of whenever there are no primary sources of law
to fall back on.
The secondary sources of Nigerian law comprise of law reports, textbooks, legal periodicals,
law digests, legal dictionaries and newspapers, among others. We must quickly point out here
that only the primary sources could have binding force on a court of law in Nigeria whereas
the mentioned secondary sources can merely serve persuasive purposes, and are usually
relied upon where no primary source is available or applicable. We shall attempt a detailed
discussion of each of these sources one after the other. Secondary sources of law are
background resources. They explain, interpret and analyze. They include encyclopedias, law
reviews, treatises, restatements. Secondary sources are a good way to start research and often
have citations to primary sources Apart from the various primary sources already discussed,
there exists a plethora of other sources of Nigerian law. These are mainly in documentary
form.

LAW REPORTS
Law reports as well as an efficient law reporting system are essential for a smooth system of
judicial administration. This is because in any nation where the principle of judicial precedent
is operational, like Nigeria, it is only by reference to reported cases that courts and lawyers
would be able to ascertain the position of law in their areas of, jurisdiction. The oldest species
of law reports are the Year Books (1282-1537). They are regarded as the most comprehensive
reports but are criticized to have been mere notes taken by students and practitioners of law
for educational or professional purposes. The first form of law reports in Nigeria was the
Nigerian Law Reports which emerged in 1916 but today they have become extinct. One
regrettable trend in the law reporting system in Nigeria is the lack of sustainability. This has
been the experience with most government and private initiatives in this regard.
Law reporting is essential for the growth of case law system. There have been private,
governments imitative in this direction. The Nigerian Weekly Law Reports (NWLR) by
Chief Gani Fawehinmi and the All Nigerian Law Reports by the Federal Ministry of Justice
amongst others are some of the well compiled and edited series.
In Nigeria today, we have quite a number of law reports in circulation, among which are the
following.
(i) Nigerian Weekly Law Reports (NWLR) published since 1985;
(ii) Supreme Court of Nigeria Judgments (SCNJ);
(iii) Law Reports of the Courts of Nigeria (LRCN);
(iv) All Nigerian Law Reports (All NLR); and
(v) Federation Weekly Law Report (FWRL)
These and many others, are also serving as sources of Nigerian law.
Law Textbooks and Treatises
A textbook or treatise written by learned scholars and jurists, constitute a very important
source of Nigerian law. It is the same experience in virtually all legal systems. Classical
authors of outstanding textbooks on the English law include Braxton; Coke and Blackstone.
Others like Dicey; Cheshire; Hood Phillips; Wade have continued to emerge over the years.
In Nigeria, legal textbooks of reputable standards have been written by Obilade;
Nwogwugwu; Okonkwo; Kodilinye; Aguda among many others. Professor Sagay has written
extensively on international law. All these present a potent source of Nigerian law and can be
authority where there is scanty or absence of judicial decisions, in which situation they could
be of persuasive authorities. Where such works are cited, the weight to be attached to them
will depend on the personality of the author and the Significance of the subject Covered.
Finally, on points of law, especially where such points have not been previously decided in
the court or where the position of the law on the point is not clear, courts may turn to
textbooks by notable authors for assistance and guidance. But their books are merely
persuasive. The Evidence Act specifically provides as regards customary laws that any book
or manuscript recognized by natives as a legal authority is relevant. Especially books written
Seasoned legal Icons.

Periodicals, Journals and Legal Digest

These are produced in various forms and colors in Nigeria. Some are professional while some
are academic, and yet some are a mixture of both. For instance, in Nigeria, there exist learned
journals published by different law faculties as well as private law publishers. Digests are
equally available for example, the Digest of Supreme Court Cases. Digests are abridgements
of cases, that is, they are useful summaries of the facts, issues, arguments and decisions in
judicial proceedings. Some foreign legal dictionaries are also available in Nigeria. Some of
these are Jowitt’s Dictionary of English Law, Stroud’s Judicial Dictionary, etc. All the above
provide helpful guidance in interpreting Nigerian law.

Casebooks
You can browse and search for case law in the same way you search for primary sources, by
subject, with a citation, or using keywords. Note, however that the body of case law is so
large that a general search in any legal database will likely provide an overwhelming number
of results and could waste a significant amount of research time. Instead, you should use a
secondary source to identify at least one relevant case, which you can build on using the
"one-good-case method."

Legal Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Legal encyclopedias contain brief, broad summaries of legal topics, providing introductions
to legal topics and explaining relevant terms of art. They also provide citations to relevant
primary law and sometimes give citations to relevant major law review articles. Dictionaries
are indispensable sources of law. To this end, the law library keeps some Standard English
Language Dictionaries and lexicons. These include, among others, the Oxford English
Dictionary, chambers English Dictionary and Webster’s International English Dictionary.
Such dictionaries help not only in verifying the meanings of words and phrase, they also
assist in the use of appropriate style, construction and framing of legal sentences to elucidate
some precision, conciseness, simplicity, and unity all of which are salient hallmarks of any
source of law. Legal dictionaries may either be exclusively in English or bi-lingual. Examples
of Standard English language legal dictionaries include Black’s Law dictionary and Stroud’s
judicial Dictionary. There also exists some specialized dictionaries concerning specific
subject areas as well as other topical issues –Bi- lingual legal dictionaries are most helpful for
deciphering certain words or phrases especially Latin or French, which have been
unavoidably used in a passage. Most of such words have Roman and Anglo – Saxon origins
and have become part of today’s legal writing to drive home certain principles and legal
maxims. Examples of bi- lingual dictionaries may include English-French, English – Italian,
English- Latin and English – Arabic Dictionaries.

Newspapers
Law libraries subscribe to newspapers and magazines not for the mere purpose of general
reading. A deliberate effort is usually made by the law librarian to cut feature articles and
notable news items and clip them neatly for storage. Such materials are thus arranged under
broad subject headings in alphabetical sequence for easy retrieval. Newspaper and magazine
clippings provide the most accessible current sources of research materials and therefore form
secondary source of law. Articles in newspapers often cover wide areas of subject matters
spanning every conceivable field of human endeavor. The only major snag about newspaper
clippings as source of law is that the facts contained in a particular report or write-up may
need to be further clarified or verified possibly from the writer or the maker for authenticity.
This is not saying that newspaper articles and reports are not dependable as sources of law.
This fact notwithstanding, newspapers are veritable sources of quick information on topical
issues, which would take some time to be covered by authoritative textbooks.