n the last three years of my time in practice, I was much exposed to the question of the proper scope of the illegality defence in English law, as a result of two cases which I argued as Counsel: Stone & Rolls v. Moore Stephens 1 , a victory which earned me the undying resentment […]
I met Tom Denning in an earlier life. In the early 1970s, when I was the junior history fellow of Magdalen College Oxford, he was an honorary fellow. Most honorary fellows were content to smile benignly at the institution from a great distance, but Denning was different. He actually turned up and talked to people. […]
It is sometimes possible to prove facts which show that the accused has a bad character or previous convictions under what is often called the similar facts doctrine. This operates to the effect that proving that the accused on another occasion did something similar to what he is now accused of doing may be relevant, […]
t is one thing to have fundamental human rights enshrined in a Constitution and it is another for the people to feel the effects. This is more so in developing countries than in developed countries. In Western democracies, there is a responsibility approach on the part of the citizens and the institutions of government to […]
The regulatory exercise recently carried out by the Central Bank of Nigeria resulting in the sacking of the Board of eight major banks in the country has created a lot of furore naturally, within the banking industry and in the general public and private sector, especially amongst the customers of the affected banks. The statement […]
An injunction is an order of the Court by which a Party (person at law) is required to do, or refrain from doing a particular thing. This order may be either restrictive which means it is preventive or mandatory in which case it is compulsive. The injunctive relief is equitable and is at the discretion […]
In filing an appeal to the Court of Appeal from the lower courts or to the Supreme Court from the Court of Appeal, an appellant has to be careful not to be caught by what may be referred to as the ‘leave provision’ or the ‘leave requirement’. There are in our Statutes and Rules of […]
APPELLATE PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE A party that intends to appeal against a decision of the High Court or the Court of Appeal must file a competent notice of appeal. This is the procedural way of invoking the jurisdiction of the appellate court. It can be compared with the process and procedure of filing a writ […]
The adjudicatory process or system is a sine qua non as a dispute resolution mechanism between individuals and institutions in any form of civilized setting. The essence of litigation is to resolve disputes that would most certainly arise in society between individuals and also between institutions. The process of litigation becomes more complex as the […]
n every field of study and in all human endeavour, it is imperative to inquire into its essence. Law in practical terms is not complex. The actual rules and regulations that make up laws of modern society may themselves not be that complex in the sense that they may be embedded in charter, constitutions, bills […]