Programme Overview
Law Programme.

Programme Overview
Law Programme.

This Curriculum offers a truly modern legal education reflecting the needs and concerns of Nigeria and the global community in the 21st century. The curriculum invites the students to develop a knowledge and understanding of legal concepts, practical applications, and legal skills in clinical and moot court practice, ethics, and legal argument. The curriculum exposes students to developing critical skills in research and analysis as well as understanding policy implications. Overall, the degree is designed to provide both a robust academic experience as well as vocational development, a balance that is highly sought after by employers in both law and non-law sectors.

Philosophy

The Law programme is established to contribute significantly to the enrichment and enhancement of legal study and practice. It is designed to provide legal education within a dynamic socio-political environment encompassing national and global trends and challenges. The main focus of the Law programme is to create an environment that encourages intellectual rigour, analytical and critical engagement, and profound ethical standards. The programme must be committed to outcome-based, learner-centred legal education that integrates knowledge, skills, and value competency and ethics to produce law graduates who can compete actively in legal, social, economic, and political developments globally.

Objectives

1. ensure that Law is taught as it exists at any given time and that every Law student adopts a comparative approach to legal studies bearing in mind that there are many systems of Law (Common Law, Statutory Law, Customary Law and Islamic Law) currently in operation;
2. ensure that students are imbued with general knowledge and understanding of Law;
3. develop in students the intellectual ability to apply research, knowledge and analytical skills to solving theoretical and practical legal problems;
4. acquaint students with principles of the judicial process and legal systems, as well as their interaction with socio-economic frameworks;
5. provide, through training and orientation, an appreciation of the growing relevance of inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary approaches to the solution of complex life problems and the role of law therein;
6. prepare the students to practice law with professional excellence and commitment to fairness, justice, compassion, and the highest ethical standards;
7. develop in the students the knowledge and competency that will enable them to succeed in a range of careers, leadership at the Bar, the Bench, the academia, the public and private sectors;
8. prepare the students to serve the community, accommodate disadvantaged members of society, and be dedicated to the preservation of human dignity and the common good;
9. train the students to appreciate the synergy between the law and other disciplines or professions; and
10. prepare the students for the diverse and globalised environment.

Programme
Unique Features

1. client relationships such as the ability to listen, understand the client’s perspective and goals and develop a relationship of trust;
2. ethical responsibilities: The legal profession’s values of justice, fairness, candour, honesty, integrity, professionalism, respect for diversity, and respect for the Rule of Law;
3. self-confidence, resilience, and good communication skills;
4. problem-solving: Representational skills such as the ability to collaborate or otherwise work effectively with co-counsel and with third parties including opposing counsel, tribunals, and other professionals, negotiate and draft agreements;
5. lifelong learning and research: Factual research, ability to interview (e.g. clients, witnesses, and victims), gather facts by formal and informal means;
6. pro bono: Responsibility to ensure that adequate legal services are provided to those who cannot afford to pay for them;
7. entrepreneurships skills to see law practice as a business;
8. globalization and cross-cultural skills such as the ability to interact with clients, lawyers, and others from various cultures and socio-economic groups and the ability to practice cross-jurisdictionally and internationally;
9. alternative dispute resolution: Provide effective counselling on alternative courses of action; and
10. social engineering: The role of the legal profession in society

Employability Skills

1. Robust legal argument skills
2. Communication skills
3. Research and brief writing skills
4. Arbitration and Mediation competencies
5. Analytical skills to solving theoretical and practical legal problems
6. Practice management skills
7. Transactional skills, such as the ability to structure a legal transaction effectively
8. Legal drafting skills;

21st Century Skills

1. legal Presentation skills;
2. Calternative Dispute Resolution skills;
3. practical Court Room presentation;
4. globalization and cross-cultural skills;
5. information technology skills;
6. critical thinking;
7. communication skills;
8. creativity;
9. problem-solving;
10. perseverance;

STRUCTURE

Two categories of courses are included in the programme: core and optional (compulsory and elective) courses. These are again broken down into compulsory law courses and elective law courses on the one hand, and compulsory non-law courses and elective non-law courses on the other.

The core or compulsory courses are those which must be taken and passed by all students at particular levels. The optional or elective courses are those from which students must choose at particular levels to make up the minimum credit load requirement.

The distinctive features of the revised LL.B programme is the introduction of a substantial number of non-law courses which, according to the National Universities Commission(NUC), is designed to give the law graduate a broad-based education.