Preface to the first edition

• Pages: 11-17

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

Man-kind has, in a matter of speaking traversed beyond the nuclear and space-age

and entered into what is simply termed the INFORMATION ERA. Never before

has so much information been so readily accessible to so great a number of people.

And never before has the NEED to be informed been so important to mankind’s

development, progress and indeed his very existence. The relevance of LAW within

the context of the popular term “Information Super Highway” cannot be overlooked

given that it is the backbone of the institutions which provide for man’s existence.

This existence is not based merely on man as an individual but runs right through to

his membership of the comity of nations, that ever shrinking global structure which,

by virtue of information technology has become one single global village. Modern-

day scientific advancements have resulted in rapid social, economic and political

developments which in themselves have brought about significant progressions in the

area of legal jurisprudence and likewise, judicial pronouncements. Given this sce-

nario it becomes imperative that lawyers and judges have substantive, convenient,

and immediate access not only to Court judgments but more importantly, to a com-

plete analysis of the entire body of Nigerian Laws including judicial interpretations of

specific words, phrases, situations and problems.

The apex of any information provider has always been in the form of an Encyclopaedia.

For centuries, Encyclopaedias have provided the crucial access to instant informa-

tion. To have such access is tantamount to owning a goldmine of knowledge, indeed

Encyclopaedias take pride of place on any bookshelf. My decision to undertake this

publication was predicated on what I observed to be an obvious lacuna in the field of

legal research material in Nigeria: a publication providing a complete compilation of

the laws of Nigeria in a form and manner which is accurate, precise and facilitates

the critical and fundamental need to obtain instant answers or explanations to spe-

cific legal issues, questions, usages, problems or even words.

The Law itself defies simple explanation. As a discipline it encompasses a tremen-

dous variety of fields – criminal and civil transactions and litigation, negotiations and

arbitration, patents and copyrights, politics and family affairs to name but a few.

Other areas are extremely modern – securities, product liability law, and the attempt

to standardize intellectual property practices in the age of the internet or the ‘Infor-

mation Super Highway’.

I have spent the last decade and more pondering on, planning and collating an amal-

gamation of the ancient and modern, Customary and English Common Law, Nigerian

Statutory Law and the age-old Latin dicta, in the form of a Nigerian Legal

Encyclopaedia. The objective in publishing this Encyclopaedia has been two-fold: -

first to make available a more efficient and complete presentation of Nigerian law as

it now exists in statute books and in the numerous volumes of reported cases of the

High Courts, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, and secondly to provide a

complete Encyclopaedic treatment of the whole body of Nigerian law, presenting

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