Law & Society

“The scope of the book is huge as it analyzes the relationship of the Law with many societal topics encompassing “inter alia” the history of the Nigerian society, sources of law, evolution of the Nigerian legal system, the Nigerian Constitution, Ethics in the legal profession and many more topics besides. Indeed, the learned Senior Advocate of Nigeria splendidly demonstrates an impressive holistic approach to the title and essence of the book: “Law and Society”. As we say in the law “he covers the field”. I hereby recommend the book, without any reservation whatsoever, to judicial officers, legal practitioners, academicians, law-students, civil society, the media, all who enjoy reading and all persons who are interested in making the Nigerian society better for us all by upholding the Rule of Law.”– Chief ‘Folake Solanke, SAN, CONFirst Female Senior Advocate of Nigeria

Law is defined as the regime that orders human activities and relations through systematic application of the force of politically organised society, or through social pressure, backed by force, in such a society. It is also defined as the aggregate of legislation, judicial precedents and accepted legal principles. It is the legal system; the set of rules that prescribe acceptable behaviour in a society. In some cases, the laws prescribe punishments that will be imposed on persons who are guilty of infraction of the law. There is a third sense in which law is used in which law is used. In that sense, law defines as the set of rules dealing with a specific area of the legal system. An example of this is criminal law, which is the set of laws that define crimes and prescribe punishment for breach thereof.

In Nigeria, the major laws on crimes and offences are the criminal procedure Code, which regulates offences in the South and the Penal Code, which regulates offences in the North. In addition to these, there are many other legislation and regulations that relate to crimes. Society is a community of people with common history, religion, culture or traditions. Such community of persons may be a nation, state, locality, town or village. The peoples that constitute the society must however possess one or more element(s) common to them. It has been established that there is a relationship between law and society. Nigerian authors of legal literature have rarely addressed the relationship between law and society. With respect to criminal law, there are sociological questions of what the basis for punishment is.

It is reorientation and transformation?

Is it merely a means to torture and shame?

Or is it a means of putting criminals away from decent living for a very long time?

This work will agree with Pats-Acholonu, JCA that: It must be stated here that the purpose of law in any society claiming to be civilized is to bring order, stability and interdependent consciousness in a given society. To that end, the Courts through the well oriented reasoned and seasoned legal activism and society engineering will by their liberal interpretative powers focus on the egalitarian aspects of the life of the society and make the society responsive to the norms and demands of some philosophical tenets which guarantee the well-being and orderliness of the community. Candidates for political offices in Nigeria in the quest for electoral votes often promise a social contract with the people. This book sets out to ascertain the meaning of social contract and to what extent it exists in Nigeria.

It further suggests how its benefits, if any, can be realised. A major challenge to Nigeria’s democracy and the government is the fact of the non-involvement of the people in making the most important law – the Constitution – that will govern them. This has the effect of making them feel left-out and to see the laws as impositions by the government. It is ironical that the 1999 Constitution, which was enacted without any involvement of the people by the military, opens with the words ‘’ we the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria….. Do hereby make, enact and give to ourselves the following Constitution”:’’ No wonder then that since 1999, there has been a clamour for a sovereign national conference and constitutional; amendment.

All these underscore the need for the law to be made for the people and, directly or indirectly, by the people. This raises the challenge of how that can be achieved. Since 1999 Nigeria’s attempt to amend the Constitution has been made difficult by the lack of consensus on several of the issues and the submission of numerous difference demands by too many interest groups and members of the society. Part A of this book deals with the interconnection between law and society. The few texts on ethics in the legal profession were written by lecturers at the Nigerian Law School, essentially for students of that vocational institution. Chief Olanipekun SAN takes the view that a lawyer who was trained at the Nigerian Law School ought to be familiar with the ethics of the profession.

It is one thing to be familiar with a concept and quite another to be guided by it. It is important to take a detailed look at the lawyer’s two attributes of professionalism and ethics from the practitioner’s perspective. It is this void that part 2 of this Book seeks to fill. The incidents of professional misconducts among lawyers call into question the extent to which lawyers are aware of, or have on a personal level imbibed the core values of the profession. The reasons for this include the early stage formation of the individual in terms of character building, greed, a growing culture of impunity on the part of offenders, declining enforcement of the rules guiding the profession, the state of the economy and corruption in the wider society.

Of equal concern are the widespread allegation of corruption and bias against judges and the question of whether a segment of lawyers in the private and public sectors of the economy understand their professional duties, the profession and the society. Having chosen the noble profession of the law however, the lawyers and the judge must aim to lives of integrity and dignity, accompanies by a competent and professional approach to the delivery of legal services and discharge of the judicial function. The legal practitioner must aim for excellence and to hold his own among his peers anywhere in the world. Today’s lawyer and judge must, to paraphrase Achebe, dance the dance that is prevalent in his time.

This time, it must not be the dance of corruption, but of high ethical conduct, not of regressive, unorthodox approach to the practice of law, but of progressive, technology driven style of legal practice dictated by the finest traditions of the profession and by ‘the good that happens elsewhere’. The principles of ethics and professionalism are contained in some written documents such as the Legal practitioners Act and the Rules of professional conduct. Unsurprisingly, these are not exhaustive in their contents. This book brings new perspectives to issues of ethics and professionalism for lawyers and examines compliances with the principles in a fast changing world, bearing in mind that lawyers are the custodians of the law, with its immense relevancies to the society.

The book lays no claim to perfection, and I therefore take full responsibility of any error of omission or commission that may be found herein.

It gives me tremendous pleasure to accept the invitation of my learned friend of the Silk – Dr Fabian Ajogwu SAN to write the foreword to his scholarly book on: ‘’Law and society’’. The book articulates extremely important and fundamental issues which affect the society at large. The scope of the book is huge as it analyzes the relationship of the law with many societal topics encompassing ‘’Inter alia’’ the history of the Nigerian society, sources of law, evolution of the Nigerian legal system, the Nigeria Constitution, Ethics in the legal profession and many more topics besides. Indeed, the learned Senior Advocate of Nigeria splendidly demonstrates an impressive holistic approach to the title and essence of the book: ‘’Law and Society’’. As we say in the law ‘’ he covers the field’’.

Although professional ethics in the legal, medical, engineering or any other profession is a topic many scholars and authors are not comfortable to discuss, yet, the author deftly and boldly articulates ethics in all its ramifications by his own originality and wise application of the Rules of Professional Conduct in the legal profession. The discussion on professionalism and ethics of in-house and public services counsel is a superb explosion of an important part of the ethics of the learned profession. The author should be loudly applauded for his discourse on this important aspect of the legal profession. The author eloquently enunciates the lawyer’s noble and professional role to uphold and facilitate the development of the society. It is trite to state that every aspect of human society revolves around law and the lawyer.

The lawyer is involved in drafting and constructing documents, and findings solutions to many of the societal problems, particularly legal problems.

In his book: “In the Eyes of the Law’’, the Honourables Justices Chukwudifu Oputa said at pages 213 declared:-‘’The ordinary citizen may not and perhaps cannot protect himself against those concentrations of power which by their weight or their natures conduces to the oppression of the individual namely, the power of prosecution, the power of parliament, the power of the executive, the power of wealth and status, the power of monopoly and restrictive association, and the biggest problems of all, the power of numbers. it is the duty of the advocates, a duty he owes to the community to ensure that the individual is properly protected from power to see that there is a fair, equitable and just balance between those who have power and those who are subjected to such power’’.

Undoubtedly, lawyers will encounter many obstacles and challenges which may impede the effective discharge of the duty imposed on them as lawyers. Such obstacles include unethical conduct of some colleagues, unjust laws, disobedience of court orders, particularly by government officials and delay in the adjudicatory system. Dr. Ajogwu SAN Presents the book as a clarion call to lawyers to observe the highest ethical principles of their learned profession in order to discharges the enormous responsibility placed on them by the law.

In the author’s elucidation of the famous (or is it infamous?) chapter II of the Constitution on Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State policy, the author vehemently address the mischief in S. (6) of the Constitution which renders all the sanctimonious pronouncement on the good life in Chapter II worthless. The negation of justiciability in Section 6(6) leaves the Chapter in a prostrate state. My learned friend is insightful in his treatment of customary law, which he has placed on its proper pedestal thus:-“Customary law has got to be recognised as an important vehicle regulating the conduct and lives of the vast majority of Nigeria."The Hon. Justice Nnaemeka-Agu JSC in Ugo v Obiekwe declared thus:-‘’Our customary law is still bogged down this annoying vestige of colonialism….

The result is that our customary law is still treated like foreign law in our own country (more than three decades) after our independences from colonial rule. This is far from satisfactory… it is to be regretted however, that whereas the authorities concerned are taking the commendable step of riding our statue and received English law of anachronism, nothing appears to be happening in the area of customary law which forms the essential backbone of our ‘’corpus juris Nigerianae’’. I believe that the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies das a programmed on research on customary law. The country and the legal system should benefit substantially from such an academic exercise. As a former student of classics, I make bold to congratulate Dr.

Ajogwu SAN for the dexterous employment of Latin (with their English translation), to upgrade the scholarly reach of the book and enhance its prose. Dr. Ajogwu’s admirable professional high standard is vividly manifested in this brilliant book. His laudable and ethical approach to the practice of law and his commitment to high quality professionalism should encourage every lawyer who reads the book to go and do likewise. The book is outstanding for many reasons including: the author’s lucidity of though, clarity of language, profundity of research and compelling intellectual discourse. The splendid characteristics of this book are a testament to the learned mind of a learned Senior Advocate of Nigeria. I congratulate the author for his valuable contribution to legal scholarship.

My learned friend has written a provocative book which is germane to the current state of our country as we struggle to find ways through which the law can be the true agent towards solving the myriads of problems confronting us as nation and in fulfilling our roles as lawyers. I hereby recommend the book, without any reservation whatsoever, to judicial officers, legal practitioners, academicians, law-students, civil society, the media, all who enjoy reading and allpersons who are interested in making the Nigerian society better for all of us by upholding the Rule of Law. This Book is a masterpiece which will adorn any library, particularly a law library. Dated this 30th day of October 2013Chief ‘Folake Solanke, SAN,CON Legal Practitioner,Alabukun Law-Chambers ANCE Building (2nd Floor)’Magazine Road, Jericho, Ibadan.