CURRICULUM FOR THE BACHELOR OF LAW (LL.B) DEGREE
100 LEVEL COURSES
LIB 101 USE OF LIBRARY (C) (2 Units)
The library harbours a large resource and reservoir of material which are indispensable to a robust scholarship in law. It is in this sense that a knowledge of the use of the library becomes imperative to the legal scholar. The content of the course which is compulsory for law students are the following:
(a) Definitions and differences between libraries and bookshops;
(b) Historical development of libraries; discovery of writing and early civilizations, and invention of printing;
(c) Factors responsible for the growth of Library worldwide;
(d) Different types of Libraries and their functions: public libraries, academic libraries, University libraries, Polytechnics libraries, College of education libraries, School libraries, Special libraries and National libraries;
(e) Library Information Materials: print resources, books (monographs-textbooks), serials, reference materials, characteristics of reference materials, Journals, Encyclopaedias, Dictionaries, Abstracts, Indexes, Handbooks, Atlases, Gazetteers, Yearbooks, Biography, Bibliography and Almanac;
(f) Non-Printed materials: Catalogues; Author/Title catalogues;
(g) Library classification System: Dewey decimal classification and Library of congress classification;
(h) Computerised catalogues;
(i) Library rules and regulations: regarding loan, Reservation of books, Theft, Mutilation, Copyright and Plagiarism;
(j) Ownership;
(k) Trends and Challenges in Librarianship;
(l) Growth of Information and Technology
(m) Automation and Automated Research.
FIRST SEMESTER
LAW 101 LEGAL METHODS I(C) (2 Units)
- Law in Social Context:
(a) Nature and functions of law in society: law, order and justice; law and freedom
or liberty; law and the state; law and legitimacy; law and sovereignty, law and morality, law and customs, law and conventions, and law and habits. Various schools of thought of law: Legal Positivism, Historical School, Sociological School, Natural Law and Marxian concept of law.
(b) Aspects of law – types of law: eternal law, divine law, natural law and human
or positive law; classification of law: common law and civil law; common law
and equity; public and private law; civil and criminal law, substantive and
procedural law; written and unwritten law; Customary law and Islamic law.
(c) Constitutional context of legal methods – Supremacy of the Constitution, Rule
of Law, Separation of Power, Principal Organs of Government and their functions – The Legislature, Executive and Judiciary.
(d) Methods of Social Control through law – penal method; grievance – remedial
method; private arranging method; constitutive method, administrative regulatory method; fiscal method; conferral of social benefits method.
(e) Methods of Dispute Resolution – The Adjudicatory method of dispute
resolution; The non- adjudicatory method of dispute resolution. The evolution of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanism; Classification of ADR –
Arbitration -Arbitrability and initiating arbitration; Negotiation – Classes of negotiation and approaches to negotiation; Mediation – Classes of mediation, processes of mediating; agreement to mediate; and agreement reached in mediation; Conciliation. Merits and Demerits of the non-adjudicatory methods of dispute resolution; Comparison between the adjudicatory and nonadjudicatory methods of dispute resolution.
(f) Methods of fact-finding; The adversarial/inquisitorial system; Merits and
demerits of the adversarial system; The Inquisitorial System and Merits of the Inquisitorial System.
- Legal reasoning and approach to problems – language of the law; principles, standards
and issues in law; formality and precision in the use of language and distinctiveness of
legal language; legal rhetoric and legal logic; legal reasoning and practical reasoning;
legalism. - Legal reasoning in judicial processes – sifting of facts and law in courts; ratio
decidendi; precedents. - Legal reasoning in legislation – legislative proposals; legislative drafting; ambiguity,
vagueness, open texture, semantics in law; legislative process: construction of statutes
- literal rule, golden rule, and mischief rule of statutory interpretation; Interpreting the Constitution.
LAW 102 LEGAL METHODS II (C) (2 Units) Second Semester
- Sources of Law – primary sources; statutory materials and judicial material; secondary
sources: books and pamphlets, letters, speeches, interviews, periodicals and
newspapers,
foreign materials. - Use of source materials – law library and legal research, indexing and identification of
library materials, cases and citation of cases and reports; opinions; analysis and notetaking; use of authorities in legal argument and legal writing. - Legal writing – methods and approaches in essay writing; styles of writing; analysis of
social and legal issues and application of legal rules; division of topics into chapters, sections and subsections. - Professional Ethics and Regulation of the Legal Profession – Legal Scholarship and
practice in Nigeria; Practice as a legal practitioner, Practice as a legal practitioner by
virtue of a warrant granted by Chief Justice of Nigeria, Practice as a legal practitioner
by virtue of being a Law Officer; conferment of the title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria,
Restrictions on the right of practice as a legal practitioner and Professional discipline.
GNS 111 LOGIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT I (3 Units) First Semester
(a) The various types of Logic;
(b) The Study of Logic – Terms, Propositions, Immediate Inference, the Syllogism;
(c) Introduction to Basic Schools of Philosophy.
GNS 112 LOGIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT II (3 Units) Second Semester
(a) Reduction and Principles of Reasoning;
(b) The categories and Predicable Genus,
(c) Species, and class;
(d) Diagrams;
(e) Syllogistic Arguments – Fallacies;
(f) Induction and Scientific Method
(g) Symbolic Logic and
(h) Basic schools of philosophy.
Recommended Books on Logic
- Luce, A. A., Logic (London: Hodder and Stoughton ltd., 1958).
- Copi, I. M., et. al., Introduction to Logic, (12th Edn.), New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley (India)
Pvt. Ltd., 2006) - Geach, P. T., Reason and Argument, 1976)(Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1976).
- Thouless, R. H., Straight and Crooked Thinking.
PIR 101 INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL SCIENCE (C) (3 Units)
The course surveys the major issues of politics of