26 April

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Corporate Personality in Nigerian Law: The Salomon Principle and the Veil of Incorporation

in 300 Level, Case Analysis, Class Notes, Company Law, Educational Articles

Every year in Nigeria, thousands of companies are incorporated through the Corporate Affairs Commission. The promoters sign the memorandum of association, pay the prescribed fees, and receive their certificate of incorporation. What many of them do not immediately grasp is that something remarkable has happened at the moment that certificate is issued: a new legal person has come into existence. Not a human person, but a person nonetheless, one capable of owning property, entering contracts, suing and being sued, and outliving every human being who created it. This is the doctrine of corporate personality, and it is the single most foundational...

26 April

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History of Company Law in Nigeria: From Trade by Barter to CAMA 2020

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in 300 Level, Case Analysis, Class Notes, Company Law, Educational Articles, Exam Preparation, Study Resources, Study Tips

Before the word "company" meant anything to the people of the territory now called Nigeria, commerce was already alive. Markets thrived. Goods changed hands. Farmers, hunters, and craftsmen exchanged what they had for what they needed. There were no registration numbers, no memoranda of association, no Corporate Affairs Commission. Trade simply happened, governed by trust, custom, and community. That world was transformed, gradually and then decisively, by the arrival of foreign traders, colonial administration, and the legislative machinery they brought with them. The history of company law in Nigeria is not merely an account of statutes and ordinances. It is the...

20 April

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Defamation in Nigerian Law: Libel, Slander, Social Media, and Your Legal Rights

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in 200 Level, Case Analysis, Class Notes, Law of Torts

There is a thought experiment that tort law students encounter sooner or later. Imagine two people, both targeted by another. The first is threatened with a fist to the face. The second is told, loudly and in public, that he is a thief. Neither is physically harmed. Yet both have actionable claims. The first has an action in assault, because the law protects bodily integrity from the apprehension of force. The second has an action in defamation, because the law equally protects reputation from the apprehension of others. The parallel is not coincidental. Both torts guard something fundamental about a...

19 April

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Death as a Cause of Action in Law: What Families of Accident Victims Can Claim

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in 200 Level, Case Analysis, Class Notes, Educational Articles, Exam Preparation, Law of Torts, Study Resources, Torts & Contracts

In June 2012, Dana Airlines Flight 992 crashed into a densely populated residential area at Iju-Ishaga, Lagos, killing all 153 persons on board and 10 people on the ground. Among the dead were fathers, mothers, breadwinners, and children. Their families were left not only with grief but with the immediate, crushing financial reality of lost income and lost support. The law's response to this tragedy illustrates one of the most important and underappreciated areas of Nigerian tort law: death as a cause of action. The question is not just whether someone is criminally responsible for the deaths. The question that tort...

19 April

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The Tort of Nuisance in Nigerian Law: Generator Noise, Oil Spills, and Your Legal Rights

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in 200 Level, Case Analysis, Class Notes, Educational Articles, Exam Preparation, Law of Torts, Study Resources

Picture this. You have just moved into a quiet residential estate in Lekki. Three weeks later, your neighbour sets up a commercial generator that runs from 6am to 11pm, six days a week. The fumes drift through your windows. Your children cannot sleep. Your concentration at work is shattered. You complain, informally. Nothing changes. Or consider a different scenario. An oil company has been operating a pipeline through your community in Bayelsa for two decades. Over time, there have been spills. The farmland your family depends on is contaminated. Fish have disappeared from the creeks. The water is no longer safe....

19 April

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Defences to Negligence in Tort Law: Volenti, Contributory Negligence and More

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in 200 Level, Case Analysis, Class Notes, Educational Articles, Exam Preparation, Law of Torts, Study Resources

Imagine you are knocked down by a danfo bus on Ikorodu Road, Lagos. You have a broken leg, medical bills, and two weeks of lost income. You instruct a lawyer, who confirms that the bus driver was clearly negligent. You file your claim, confident in the outcome. Then the defendant's lawyer stands up and says: "Yes, our client was negligent. But the plaintiff was crossing at the wrong point on the road, wearing dark clothing at night, without looking left or right." Suddenly, your apparently straightforward case has a complication. This is what defences to negligence do. They either completely defeat a...

19 April

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Negligence in Torts: Elements, Duty of Care, and Nigerian Case Law Explained

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in 200 Level, Case Analysis, Class Notes, Educational Articles, Exam Preparation, Law of Torts, Study Resources

Think about the last time you were stuck behind a danfo driver swerving dangerously on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Or think about the reports you have seen of patients dying after surgery at a public hospital due to what their families describe as careless treatment. Or the stories of children electrocuted by exposed NEPA cables left dangling by the roadside. All of these situations have one thing in common: they may give rise to an action in the tort of negligence. Negligence is the single most important tort in Nigerian law today. It provides a legal remedy for persons who suffer harm because...

01 April

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Double Deck Marriage in Nigeria: Legal Framework, Theories, and Consequences

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in 200 Level, Case Analysis, Class Notes, Family Law, Legal News

Double Deck Marriage in Nigeria: Legal Framework, Theories, and Consequences

It has become a deeply embedded practice in Nigeria for couples who intend to contract a statutory marriage to first marry under customary law before proceeding to the registry or church. This phenomenon — commonly referred to as double deck marriage — is not a legal term found in any statute. It is a concept developed in Nigerian family law scholarship, most notably by Onokah, to describe the situation where the same couple conducts a marriage in accordance with their indigenous customary law and subsequently goes further to conduct a separate marriage under the received English law, resulting in a...

01 April

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Void and Voidable Marriages in Nigeria: Nullity, Grounds, and Bars

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in 200 Level, Case Analysis, Civil Cases, Class Notes, Family Law

Void and Voidable Marriages in Nigeria: Nullity, Grounds, and Bars

Before reading this article, ensure you understand the three types of marriage recognised under Nigerian law. For that foundation, see our Marriage and Divorce Law in Nigeria guide. This article focuses on nullity — what it means when a marriage is legally defective from the start, and the doctrinal distinction between marriages that are void and those that are merely voidable. What is Nullity? Nullity is concerned with marriages that are legally blemished from the outset. It is conceptually distinct from divorce. Divorce terminates a valid, subsisting marriage. Nullity, by contrast, is a declaration that the marriage either never existed in law...

30 March

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Dissolution of Statutory Marriage in Nigeria: Grounds, Case Law, and Procedure

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in 200 Level, Case Analysis, Civil Cases, Class Notes, Educational Articles, Family Law

Dissolution of Statutory Marriage in Nigeria: Grounds, Case Law, and Procedure

If you need a foundational introduction to the types of marriage in Nigeria and the general divorce process, start with our Marriage and Divorce Law in Nigeria guide. This article builds on that foundation and goes deeper — into the case law, statutory construction, and doctrinal arguments you are expected to engage with at the 300L level or 200L in some schools. What is a Matrimonial Cause? A matrimonial cause is a proceeding for a decree of dissolution of marriage, nullity of marriage, judicial separation, or restitution of conjugal rights. An appeal against a decision in a matrimonial cause is itself still...