The publication of the Nigeria Law Reports [cited as NLR] in 1916 signaled the beginning of organiised law reporting in Nigeria. That publication was at the initiative of the then Judicial Department. It is not often remembered that law reporting in Nigeria is thus almost as old as Nigeria. The publication of the Nigeria Law Reports ended in 1955 with the regionalization of the Judiciary in 1954. In all, 21 volumes of the Reports were published. With regionalization the regions and the Federal Territory of Lagos each soon began publication of its law reports.

It is recalled that as far back as 1933 at the appellate level there was the WACA Reports containing selected judgments of the West African Court of Appeal which at that time was the appellate court of the British West African territories consisting of the Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast and Nigeria. As would be expected, with the establishment of the Federal Supreme Court there soon emerged the FSC Reports which contained the selected judgments of the Federal Supreme Court. It was published from 1955 to 1960. In 1961, there emerged the All Nigeria Law Reports which, as the name implies, contained selected judgments of all the superior courts in Nigeria.

One thing that these earlier reports had in common was that they were all officially sponsored publications, some domiciled in the respective Ministries of Justice and others in their respective jurisdictions; another is that they were not always published in time. Judgments were, more often than not reported months, sometimes years, after the decisions were rendered; unlike foreign judgments that were always punctually reported and published in foreign law reports; and readily made available to legal practitioners who could readily afford them as well as in some court libraries and the libraries of a few ministries of justice. The result is that in those days there was much reliance by legal practitioners and judges on foreign law reports. The reception of the English common law into the Nigerian legal system thus became firmly established through the several law reports of England, such as the Weekly Law reports and the All England Law Reports.

With this brief historical background of law reporting in Nigeria that shows that law reporting in Nigeria has been with us for a long time, that one is now writing about emergence of law reporting in Nigeria should be with the understanding that what is being described is the emergence of present day law reporting in Nigeria. It cannot be denied that, compared with the past, there is a significant transformation of law reporting in Nigeria in the past 50 years. This piece is a very brief story of that transformation.

Private Law Reporting in Nigeria

The story of formal private law reporting in modern Nigeria must start with the story of the Nigerian Monthly Law Reports which was first published in 1964 even though the concept and preparation started 50 year ago in 1963. As an active participant in the birth of the Nigerian Monthly Law Report it is a story I can proudly relate, albeit rather sketchily.

The idea of publishing the Nigerian Monthly Law Report had its origin in the kind gesture of a Justice of the Supreme Court, Sir Ian Lewis who on his own, and as an individual private effort, used to prepare a monthly digest of cases decided by the Supreme Court. The digest was not for public circulation; but, somehow, he used to send me copies of the digest which I treasured and which were extremely useful. In the legal firm of Ayoola Brothers, [then a partnership of myself and my elder brother who later became the Hon. Justice Olu Ayoola] we used to study the digest avidly and would promptly apply for certified true copies of notable judgments included in the digest. In time we had quite a collection which, as could be expected, would often put us a step ahead of several others in the profession who did not have the advantage of early knowledge of latest decision not yet reported, law reporting in those days being lethargic. In time, it occurred to me that we would be helping the profession if we could embark on a publication of law reports that would be prompt and efficient. I broached the idea to my elder brother who easily bought into the idea and modified it. My intention was for us to publish the report as an exclusive private initiative of the legal firm of Ayoola Brothers; however, my brother thought we should involve a few other notable legal practitioners with undoubted legal and intellectual ability. It was thus that we incorporated Associated Publishers (Nigeria) Ltd and invited Dr (later Justice) Akinola Aguda, Chief Richard Akinjide (later Attorney general and Minister of Justice and SAN), Omotayo Onalaja, Esq.(later a Justice of the Court of Appeal}, Professor Odumosu to join us ( my brother, Olu Ayoola, Esq (later Justice and me) to become the pioneer Editorial Board of the Nigerian Monthly Law Reports. Later Chief Folake Solanke (later SAN) was brought in and Professor Odumosu dropped out.

One would have loved to tell the story of the Nigerian Monthly Law Reports in more details, but that would not be appropriate in this brief writing. It suffices to recall what I said in a lecture to mark the 25th Anniversary of another notable law Report, The Nigerian Weekly Law Report, when I said:

“The Nigerian Monthly Law Reports which is the first indigenous unofficial law reports came into being in 1964 out of the perceived need for efficient and timely law reporting in Nigeria. Although the first edition of the NMLR was presented to the public in 1964, back-room work on the publication commenced in 1963 during which a publishing company was incorporated and support and recognition for the proposed law reports were sought and readily obtained from the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the Chief Justices of the Northern, Eastern and Western States and Lagos. The support of the various heads of the Judiciary assured us of regular supply of authenticated judgments and recognition of the reports as authoritative reports without the need to name a barrister as reporter of the individual judgments contained in the reports.

As a pioneer in the field of indigenous private law reports the editorial board of the NMLR set for itself a high standard to meet the responsibility that rested on it to produce qualitative law reports acceptable to the legal profession both locally and internationally. The Editorial Board became rather over-selective in regard to cases to be reported and very demanding in regard to the quality of editorial contents. The desire for excellence compelled the board to be extraordinarily selective in those invited to the editorial board and to be uncompromising in ensuring a high standard of editorial quality. With the benefit of hindsight the board was probably more demanding than was required or called for. The result was that the Editorial Board became a virtual closed shop the ranks of which gradually began to shrink as, one by one, members took up appointment on the Bench or were called upon for very important national assignments that left them with no time for law reporting. As could be expected the absence of advance planning that would have ensured successors to take over the task spelt doom for the sustainability of the NMLR; particularly at a time when judicial activities had increased tremendously with judgments pouring in without a compensating increase in the number of persons groomed to undertake quality reporting. If one lesson is to be learnt from the collapse of the NMLR it is that it takes more than passion and interest to sustain law reporting. Like any other enterprise designed to be sustainable advance and careful planning towards sustainability is a must.”

The story of law reporting in Nigeria today will not be complete without acknowledging a number of success stories in modern law reporting in Nigeria. In this, The Nigerian Weekly Law Reports which recently, in 2011, celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary of unbroken law reporting and publication must be given pride of place for its consistency and reliability. The story of the Nigerian Weekly Law Reports cannot be told without mention of Chief Gani Fawehinmi, whose singular effort brought the NWLR into being and who laid a solid foundation for its durable publication. That the NWLR continues to be published till today is a tribute to that great Nigerian and a credit to his successors who ensure the continuing publication of those reports.

There is also the Judgments of the Supreme Court of Nigeria published by Lawbreed Ltd which is notable for comparatively prompt reporting of the judgments of the Supreme Court. There are, of course, several other law reports published through private initiative.

Two recent development in law reporting is worthy of celebration and note. The first is the resuscitation of the Nigerian Monthly Law Reports through the efforts of Dr. Wale Babalakin, SAN, and the publishers, the Optimum Law publishers Ltd. The second is the introduction of electronic law reporting by LawPavillion Ltd.

The resuscitated Nigerian Monthly Law Reports introduced a more modern format in law reporting in Nigeria while it also brought to life again the tradition of the NMLR in reporting selected and notable decision of the High Courts. The LawPavillion Electronic Law Reports (LPELR) for its part is worth celebrating for its introduction of electronic law reporting into Nigeria.

Much as success stories in law reporting in Nigeria may engender a euphoric mood, that fact, however, should not blind one’s eyes to the multifarious challenges that law reporting must cope with if it is to remain an enduring success story. In this regard I had occasion to observe as follows and it is worth repeating here, that:

Quality of reporting entails editorial accuracy. Editorial accuracy and clarity of judgment go hand in hand. Law-reporting fulfills its cardinal purpose only when it satisfies and promotes the doctrine of precedents an ultimately, the rule of law. A law reporter that fails to appreciate the difference between the ratio decidendi of a case and an obiter dictum fails to reflect the essence of a law report. The law reporter is assisted in his/ her task when the judgment itself reflects appropriate judicial technique. Yet, sadly often failure of judicial technique manifests in judgements in which the principles on which the judge acted are obscure and cannot be ascertained. In the early days of the NMLR we adhered strictly to the guiding principle that a judgment is not reportable where the judgment exhibits a failure of judicial technique or where the judgment merely repeats and applies an uncontroversial principle or is based mainly on facts.  We may have preferred to err on the side of over-selectivity resulting in slim but qualitative monthly editions. Distributors often reported that some lawyers preferred bulky reports with which to fill the shelves!

Emergence of law reporting in Nigeria imposes fresh responsibilities which can only be ignored at a great cost to our legal system. Unless certain factors are actively promoted the emergence of law reporting in Nigeria will not bring any long lasting quality into our legal system. Some of these factors are: the need to ensure sustainability of law-reporting and quality of reporting; timely publication of reports; reliable continuity of the publication; availability of the reports and businesslike distribution mechanism. All these require a core of skilled and permanent staff in all sectors of the project, namely: reporting, editorial, production and distribution.

I once predicted and I repeat here that: “Until law reports are seen as a product that has to be attractive, qualitative and predictably available there cannot be any reasonable assurance that they would remain as sustainable as to outlive the founders and their immediate associates.” That notwithstanding, there is great optimism about the future of law reporting in Nigeria. There is still great room for development and there is a great need to catch up with law reporting standards of other jurisdictions.

•Emmanuel Olayinka Ayoola, CON, is a retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and onetime Chief Justice of The Gambia.

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Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. A DisNaija.Com network.

Source: National Mirror Newspaper

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