Lawyers call for strengthening of institutions, agencies

Following concerns on the growing scope of law, especially Public law, legal practitioners, have called for more established institutions and enforcement of laws instead of focusing on its modification, as humans are the backbone of laws.

Speaking during the maiden Public Law lecture held at the faculty of Law, University of Lagos, on the future of Public Law, Director-General, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) Prof. Adedeji Adekunle noted that because public law is potent and dynamic, it spreads to almost every facet of law.

He also noted that, there are institutions of state that are constitutionally mandated to protect the territory like the armies and police, and what should be done is to strengthen these institutions.

“We cannot say that because those institutions have failed, then we shouldn’t have public institutions to protect the people, the alternative will be anarchy which is not a good receipt for the society, he said”.

Also speaking, Head of Department, Public Law at the University of Lagos, Prof. Ayo Itsenuwa, said: there are those who believe that laws as we have them today are not the problem but the enforcement and implementation, and that calls for institutions with commitment to the laws that have been enacted and passed, while some others argue that those institutions cannot be strengthened outside the law.

Also, human beings manage and are the backbone of institutions, so it is argued that the weaknesses of institutions need to be addressed by strengthening the legal framework. Both processes are right and one is not superior to the other but what we must do is constantly ask ourselves where is the law adequate and needs no extras.

She added that the has shown the evolution of society and how laws and traditional boundaries are being challenged, “as law evolves, we are responding to that even through teaching and we are hopeful that as we do this, practitioners in the field including judges on the bench will get the rationale for much of the laws they are being called today to interpret which is crisscrossing the boundaries that they are being taught in school which are autonomous and almost static.”