19 April

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

in 200 Level, 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, 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, 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...

04 April

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The Concept of the Family and Family Law

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in 200 Level, Class Notes, Family Law

The Concept of the Family and Family Law

Family law is one of the most practically significant areas of legal study, touching the most intimate and consequential relationships in human life. Yet it begins with a deceptively simple question: what is a family? The difficulty of answering that question with precision shapes the entire discipline. The concept of the family is, at once, very easy and very difficult to define. It is easy in the sense that most people can identify those they personally regard as family. It is difficult because one person's definition is not necessarily another's, and both may differ from the legal definition. A legal system...

04 April

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Guardianship in Law: Types, Appointment, Duties, and Termination

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in 200 Level, Family Law

Guardianship in Law: Types, Appointment, Duties, and Termination

Guardianship is a legal concept that places one person in a position of legal authority and responsibility over another person who is incapable of managing their own affairs, typically because of age, incapacity, or disability. It is a fiduciary relationship, meaning the guardian holds their authority not for personal benefit but in trust for the welfare of the person under their care. Guardianship has been defined as "the fiduciary relationship between a guardian and a ward or other incapacitated person, whereby the guardian assumes the power to make decisions about the ward's person or property." The relationship is premised on trust....

03 April

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Adoption in Nigeria: Statutory Framework, Procedure, and Customary Law

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in 200 Level, Class Notes, Family Law

Adoption in Nigeria: Statutory Framework, Procedure, and Customary Law

Adoption is a legal process which permanently transfers parental rights and responsibilities from a child's biological parents to adoptive parents, thereby giving the child a new legal family. It is a way of providing new families for children who cannot be brought up by their biological parents — whether through death, abandonment, incapacity, or other circumstances. Adoption is significant in Nigerian law for several reasons. It directly affects legal status — an adopted child loses all legal ties with their biological parents and acquires a new set of rights and obligations within the adoptive family. It affects succession and inheritance —...

01 April

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Islamic Marriage in Nigeria: Formation, Requirements, and Legal Framework

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in 200 Level, Class Notes, Educational Articles, Family Law

Islamic marriage known as Nikah, is one of the three forms of marriage recognised under Nigerian law, alongside statutory marriage and customary law marriage. See our Marriage and Divorce Law in Nigeria guide for the comparative overview of all three systems. Islamic marriage is particularly significant in the northern states of Nigeria where Sharia courts exercise jurisdiction over personal law matters for Muslims. However, its legal principles apply to Muslims across the federation regardless of state of residence. Islamic marriage is grounded in religious obligation. As prescribed by Allah, it is the lawful union of a man and a woman based on mutual...

01 April

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Dissolution of Customary Law and Islamic Marriage in Nigeria

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in 200 Level, Class Notes, Family Law

Dissolution of Customary Law and Islamic Marriage in Nigeria

Nigeria operates a pluralist legal system in which customary law and Islamic law co-exist with received English law as recognised sources of legal obligation. See our note on Sources of Law in Nigeria for the broader framework. This pluralism is nowhere more visible than in family law — specifically in how marriages contracted under customary and Islamic law are dissolved. For the rules governing dissolution of statutory marriage, see our 300L note on Dissolution of Statutory Marriage. For the foundational introduction to marriage types in Nigeria, see the Marriage and Divorce Law in Nigeria guide. Part I: Dissolution of Customary Law...

01 April

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

Posted by Kolawole Adebowale

in 200 Level, 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, 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...

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