This book promotes discussion and understanding of customary law and explores its continued relevance in sub-Saharan Africa. It considers the characteristics of customary law and efforts to ascertain and codify customary law, and how this body of law differs in content, form and status from legislation and common law.

The 18 papers in this volume, originally published in 1969 in English and French, with summaries in the other language, define and analyze in their wider social contexts the fundamental ideas and procedures to be found in African traditional systems of law. They assess the needs and problems of adaptation to changing conditions. The comprehensive introduction by Allott, Epsteina nd Gluckman provides a framework of analysis. It deals with the search for a common terminology in which to analyse and compare the different systems of customary law proceedings and evidence, codification and recording, reason and the occult, the conception of legal personality, succcession and inheritance, land rights, marriage and affiliation, injuries, liability and responsibility.

Volume 1 on public law provides an introduction to the Nigerian legal system. The various chapters deal with: introduction and sources of law; jurisprudence and Nigerian perspectives; African customary law; Islamic law; comparative constitutionalism and Nigerian perspectives; citizenship, immigration and administrative law; judicial system and legal profession; criminal law, evidence and civil procedure; statutory marriage and divorce laws; customary marriage and divorce; marriage and divorce under Islamic law; matters of children; gender and law in Nigeria with emphasis on Islamic law. Volume 2 has 25 chapters on private law that includes security of the environment and environmental law, land and property administration, commercial business and trade laws, communication, media and press laws, transportation and carrier laws, law enforcement, armed forces and military laws, investments, and intellectual property.

A Theory of African Constitutionalism asks and seeks to answer why we need a new theoretical framework for African constitutionalism and how this could offer us better theoretical and practical tools with which to understand, improve, and assess African constitutionalism on its own terms. By locating constitutional studies in Africa within the experiences, interactions, and contestations of power and governance beginning in precolonial times, the book presents the development and transformation of African constitutional systems across time and place, along with the attendant constitutional designs and practices ranging from the nature and operation of the African state to its vertical and horizontal government structures, to its constitutional rights regime. This title offers both a theoretically and comparatively rich, historically and contextually informed, and temporally and spatially extensive account of the nature, travails, and incremental successes of African constitutionalism with detailed case studies from Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa. A Theory of African Constitutionalism provides scholars, policymakers, governments, and constitution builders in Africa and beyond with new insights for reimagining the purpose, substance, and scope of constitutions and constitutionalism.

Text no. 1: The variety of topics covered and the quality of the contributors make these two volumes a necessary part of any law library in the world. The essays are designed to overlap in the well-tested and established fields and branches of law dealing with contemporary issues which lawyers, diplomats, political scientists, politicians and research scholars are familiar with. The essays fully demonstrate the depth of knowledge of the eminent professors and specialists who have written them. The two volumes of essays are divided into seven parts. Volume One, entitled Contemporary International Law and Human Rights, focuses essentially on subjects relating to International Law and is divided into three sections. Part one of the first volume encompasses Topics in International Law such as Some New Thoughts on the Codification of International Law by his Excellency Judge Roberto Ago; Evidence in the Procedure of the International Court of Justice: The Role of the Court by His Excellency Judge Manfred Lachs; The Validity of International Law: an Empirical Experiment by Professor Georg Schwarzenberger, with a particularly engaging and incisive Introduction to the two volumes of Essays by Professor Ian Brownlie, Q.C. Human rights subjects still hold pride of place in the thinking of many legal experts and scholars and that is clearly reflected here. The title of the second volume is African Law and Comparative Public Law. Part Five of the essays contains topics of interest in the African Legal system which has its roots in the British Common Law System. Constitutional Law is broadly covered in part six which forms a section of its own in Volume Two. Text no. 2: This Festschrift pays tribute to Judge Taslim Olawale Elias, the leading African exponent of International Law to date. The two volumes of essays are divided into seven parts. The first volume focuses essentially on subjects relating to International Law and is divided into three sections. Part one of the first volume encompasses Topics in International Law such as Some New Thoughts on the Codification of International Law by His Excellency Judge Roberto Ago; Evidence in the Procedure of the International Court of Justice: The Role of the Court by His Excellency Jugde Manfred Lachs; The Validity of International Law: an Empirical Experiment by Professor Georg Schwarzenberger, with a particularly engaging and incisive Introduction to the two volumes of Essays by Professor Ian Brownlie, Q.C. Human Rights subjects still hold the pride of place in the thinking of many legal experts and scholars which is clearly reflected here. The title of the second volume is African Law and Comparative Public Law. Part five of the essays contains topics of interest in African Legal system which took its roots from the British Common Law System. Constitutional Law is bloadly covered in part six which forms a section of its own in volume two. Quite apart from the variety of topics covered in this festschrift, the quality of the contributors to it, makes the whole exercise a necessary part of an important collection of any law library in the world. The framework of the essays suggest that they are designed to overlap in the well-tested and established field of law and those branches of law dealing with contemporary issues which lawyers, diplomats, political scientists, politicians and research scholars are familiar with. The richness of the festschrift is m.

Folk Law, a comprehensive two-volme collection of essays, examines the meeting place of folklore - the unwritten law of obligations and prohibitions that are understood and passed on - and jurisprudence. The contributors explore the historical significance and implications of folk law, its continuing influence around the globe, and the conflicts that arise when folk law diverges from official law. -- Taken from publisher's site

This volume in honour of Stephen Ellis is a follow-up to the public presentation of his book on the history of organised crime in Nigeria This Present Darkness (Hurst, 2016) at the University of Lagos, Nigeria on 28 October 2016. In addition to four papers, and a book review presented at this colloquium, other contributions about crime in Nigeria have been added, written by Nigerian authors. In July 2015 Stephen died, and he has worked on This Present Darkness almost to his last moments, as a senior researcher of the African Studies Centre in Leiden. This book also contains a tribute to his life and work written by his wife and scholar Gerrie ter Haar. Contributors include: A.E Akintayo, Jackson Aluede, Franca Attoh, Ayodele Atsenuwa, Edmund Chilaka, Samson Folarin, Gerrie ter Haar, Ayodeji Olukoju, Abiodun Oluwadare, Paul Osifodunrin and Leo Enahoro Otoide.

Comparative in both approach and framework, Family Law, Sex and Society provides a critical exposition of key areas in family law, exploring their evolution and development within their historical, cultural, political and legal context. Cross-referencing to English law throughout, this comparative textbook pays particular attention to the transformation of marriage; the development of divorce laws; matrimonial property; the legal recognition of unmarried heterosexual and same-sex cohabitants; the universal adoption of the best interests standard for children in domestic and international legislation; and the impact of the Human Rights Act 1998 on family law in a variety of jurisdictions. Divided into different sections, Family Law, Sex and Society includes coverage of: a jurisdictional and historical survey of some of the main themes in Family Law, as well as consideration of the evolution of the Western family the English law relating to divorce, marital property and children and a comparison with the equivalent law in the civil law jurisdictions of France and Germany family law developments in other common law countries such as Australia and New Zealand, selected American jurisdictions, parts of Africa and some Far Eastern countries; and hybrid jurisdictions like Japan and Russia an analysis of the law relating to unmarried cohabitation and domestic partnerships in civil law jurisdictions such as France, Germany and Sweden in comparison to Anglo-American law a comparative analysis of the laws relating to domestic violence. Family Law, Sex and Society offers valuable socio-legal and socio-cultural insights into the practice of family law, and is the only textbook that provides a unified, coherent and comparative approach to the study of family law as it operates in these particular jurisdictions.