A Model Empirical Study of the Current State of Governmental Provision of Free Access to Nigerian Public Legal Information (Volume 4)
Copyright © 2021 By Dr. Leesi Ebenezer Mitee
Book Citation
Leesi Ebenezer Mitee, A Model Empirical Study of the Current State of Governmental Provision of Free Access to Nigerian Public Legal Information, Volume 4, Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information Book Series (Publisher: Koinonia Legal Research and Book Publishing, Tilburg, The Netherlands 2020)
Book Title
A Model Empirical Study of the Current State of Governmental Provision of Free Access to Nigerian Public Legal Information
Book Series
Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information Book Series
Book Formats
ISBN 9789083108551 (eBook) – eBook or e-Book (digital or electronic book that you can read on your mobile phone, tablet, eReader, laptop, desktop computers, etc.)
ISBN 9789083108537 (Paperback)
Publisher: Koinonia Legal Research and Book Publishing, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Book Author
Dr. Leesi Ebenezer Mitee
Dr. Leesi Ebenezer Mitee is an Associate Professor of Law. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) with specialisation in international human rights law, legal information technology (an aspect of legal informatics, which is the application of information technology to legal processes and legal information systems), indigenous customary law, and indigenous rights; Master of Laws (LLM) in comparative access to public legal information in the United Kingdom and Nigeria; postgraduate professional legal practice certificate (BL); Bachelor of Laws (BL); Higher National Diploma (HND) in Town & Country planning (Urban & Regional Planning); Member, Nigerian Bar Association; Fellow, Society for Advanced Legal Studies (United Kingdom); Member, Internet Society (United States); Member, American Indigenous Research Association (United States)
Book Publication Information
The book, A Model Empirical Study of the Current State of Governmental Provision of Free Access to Nigerian Public Legal Information, Volume 4, Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information Book Series (Publisher: Koinonia Legal Research and Book Publishing, Tilburg, The Netherlands 2020) is an upcoming book.
Information on its publication, sale, and online access outlets will be published here, as soon as the book is published and available for global distribution.
Table of Contents (Chapters)
Chapter 18: Historical Overview of Governmental Provision of Access to Nigerian Public Legal Information
Chapter 19: An Empirical Study of the Current State of Governmental Provision of Free Access to Nigerian Legislation
Chapter 20: An Empirical Study of the Current State of Governmental Provision of Free Access to the Judgments of Nigerian Courts
Chapter 21: An Empirical Study of the Current State of Governmental Provision of Public Access to Indigenous Customary Law in Nigeria
Chapter 22: A Critical Assessment of the Existing Legal Framework for Governmental Provision of Free Access to Nigerian Public Legal Information
Book Abstract (Book Description)
This book, A Model Empirical Study of the Current State of Governmental Provision of Free Access to Nigerian Public Legal Information (Volume 4 of the Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information Book Series), uses the empirical legal methodology to assess the current state of free access to Nigerian public legal information (that is, the primary sources of Nigerian law, e.g. legislation and case law or judicial decisions) on the World Wide Web, provided by the Nigerian federal government and Nigeria’s thirty-six state governments.
It presents a historical perspective of the publication of laws in Nigeria (the seventh most populous country in the world and one of Africa’s leading economies) and examines the adequacy of its legal framework for free access to public legal information in this information and communications technology (ICT) age.
The book reveals that neither the Nigerian federal government nor any of its thirty-six States has any official online public legal information database and that the prevalent practice by all these governments is the publication of print legal information as a revenue-generating business. It further finds that non-state actors provide access to a majority of the available free online legal information resources, but their resources are grossly inadequate because they are neither up-to-date, comprehensive, nor accurate reproductions.
The book argues that the lack of political will to actualise the basic tenets of democracy (especially, transparency, the rule of law, and public participation in governance) is the preeminent factor responsible for the extremely poor state of free access to Nigerian public legal information. It concludes that the starting point towards the provision of adequate free access to Nigerian public legal information is the abrogation of copyright in the texts of all government works, which include all categories of Nigerian laws, by amending section 4 of the Nigerian Copyright Act 1988 to reverse its imposition of copyright in government-held information. This will introduce the necessary paradigm shift towards the realisation that governments merely hold public information in trust for the people who are its actual owners and, therefore, have the right of free access to their own information.
Additionally, the book concludes that the enactment of appropriate legislation that clearly imposes, and adequately defines, the legal duty of the federal, state, and local governments to develop and maintain their comprehensive and up-to-date official public legal information online databases with free access is indispensable to the provision of adequate free access to all categories of Nigerian laws.
The book is relevant to all those involved in issues relating to access to justice, international human rights law, indigenous rights, human rights advocacy, political science, public administration, the administration of justice, and law reform.
Keywords: Free access to Nigerian public legal information (laws), Human right of free access to public legal information, Nigerian Copyright Act 1988, Nigerian legislation, Nigerian case law (judicial decisions or judgments), Nigerian customary law
Books and eBooks in the Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information Book Series
Volume 1: Developments in Human Rights Law and the Proposed Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information: The New Human Rights-Advocacy Approach and the Ten Criteria for the Formal Recognition of New Human Rights (click here)
Volume 2: The New Human Rights-Based Huricompatisation Model of Ascertainment of Indigenous Customary Law: Strategies for Adequate Local and Global Public Access (click here)
Volume 3: Innovative Technological Mechanisms for Adequate Web-Based Access to National and Global Public Legal Information (click here)
Volume 4: A Model Empirical Study of the Current State of Governmental Provision of Free Access to Nigerian Public Legal Information (click here)
Information on the availability of all the books in the Series is available on The Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information Advocacy (HURAPLA) website (https://publiclegalinformation.com) that also contains valuable public legal information resources. Contact email: info@koinonialegal.com
Copyright © 2021 By Dr. Leesi Ebenezer Mitee
Dr. Leesi Ebenezer Mitee is an Associate Professor of Law. He holds a multidisciplinary PhD in international human rights law, legal information technology (aspects of legal informatics), indigenous customary law, and indigenous rights and LLM in transborder comparative analysis of free access to public legal information. He is a former legal research national consultant to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on the 1998 PCASED project that provided the juridical foundations for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) 1998 Moratorium which culminated in a regional multilateral treaty: ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, their Ammunition and other Related Matters 2006. He devised the <.officiallaws) official public legal information generic top-level domain (gTLD) system for easy identification of the reliable versions of the laws published online worldwide; developed the system of nationally networked one-stop official public legal information websites (the NOPLIW system) for the optimal findability and management of online law databases; invented the human rights-based public access-adequate huricompatisation model of ascertainment of indigenous customary law (huricompatisation); formulated the new human rights-advocacy approach (NHRAA) that consists of a set of ten onerous criteria for the formal universal recognition of new human rights; and pioneered the global advocacy of the formal universal recognition of the right of free access to public legal information as a substantive or stand-alone human right in 2017 (https://publiclegalinformation.com). His New Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information Book Series consists of 22 (twenty-two) modern academic article-style independent but interconnected chapters of the following four books:
Developments in Human Rights Law and the Proposed Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information: The New Human Rights-Advocacy Approach and the Ten Criteria for the Formal Recognition of New Human Rights (Volume 1) — ISBN 9789083108520 (eBook) and 9789083108506 (paperback);
The New Human Rights-Based Huricompatisation Model of Ascertainment of Indigenous Customary Law: Strategies for Adequate Local and Global Public Access (Volume 2) — ISBN 9789083108568 (eBook) and 9789083108544 (paperback);
Innovative Technological Mechanisms for Adequate Web-Based Access to National and Global Public Legal Information (Volume 3) — ISBN 9789083108513 (eBook) and 9789083108582 (paperback); and
A Model Empirical Study of the Current State of Governmental Provision of Free Access to Nigerian Public Legal Information (Volume 4) — ISBN 9789083108551 (eBook) and 9789083108537 (paperback).
The Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information Advocacy (HURAPLA) website (https://publiclegalinformation.com) contains details of the availability of these books and valuable legal information resources.
Email: info@koinonialegal.com | Website: https://publiclegalinformation.com