RELEASING THE ACADEMIC SPIRIT IN THE LEGAL SYSTEM: LAW FACULTIES AND LEGAL EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

As the historical narrative of legal education in Nigeria goes, the pre-independence Unsworth Committee recommended a two stage system of indigenous legal education for the country. This consists of an academic component offered at law faculties in the universities and a vocational component available only at the Nigerian Law School upon graduation from a University. Accordingly, since inception legal education in Nigeria has been provided jointly by University law faculties and the Nigerian Law School. Despite apparent continuation of this two-stage approach to legal education, there have recently been rumblings in some quarters that the quality of graduating lawyers is falling. Partly in response to such observations, this paper argues that although the Unsworth Committee's recommendation presupposes two distinctive but complementary paths to legal education, in practice, a single path has emerged with the academic component trapped as hostage to vocational training preferences. The paper argues further that increasingly, albeit informally, the law faculties are being evaluated by the performance of their graduates at the vocational course in the Nigerian Law School. Thus, law faculties have become preparatory institutions for the vocational component thereby denying the legal system of the benefits that ought to accrue from effective provision of studies in law as an academic discipline.