The Judiciary

It has often been said that the function of the judiciary is to interpret the laws made by the legislature. According to Black’s Law dictionary, the judiciary is defined as the branch of government responsible for interpreting laws and administering justice, made up of a system of courts and a body of judges. A working judiciary is necessary in every civilized society. Even in pre-colonial Nigeria, each tribe had their methods have settling disputes.

In order to carry out their functions, courts are granted judicial power. Judicial power is the power of a sovereign authority to determine actual controversies or disputes arising between its subjects or between itself and its subjects through the use of a tribunal having the power to entertain the suit and to give a binding and authoritative decision thereupon. It is, in essence, the power of the court to entertain, pronounce judgment and carry out such a decision into effect between persons who bring a case before it for determination. Section 6(1) and (2) of the constitution vests judicial power in the courts listed in subsection (5).

A court’s power is subject to the jurisdiction conferred by the constitution or any other enabling statute. The issue of jurisdiction will determine the kinds of matters to be taken to the different kinds of courts. A court which lacks jurisdiction will lack the authority to pronounce over a dispute brought before it.

There exists a hierarchy of courts in the Nigerian legal system, as is necessary in a state which practices the doctrine of judicial precedents. The courts in hierarchy may be grouped into different classifications. The most important of the classifications is the classification of courts into superior courts and inferior courts. Superior courts are dissolution described as courts of unlimited jurisdiction. In the strict sense of the term “unlimited jurisdiction”, no court has that, and every court is limited in some respect. However, superior courts are described as having unlimited jurisdictions because the limitations to their jurisdictions are minimal. While they are limited by the nature of the subject-matter, they are not limited by the value of the subject matter. The High Court of a state is one example of a superior court. Inferior courts, on the other hand, are limited by the type and value of the subject-matter. An example is the Magistrates’ court.

There is also another classification of courts, which is the classification into courts of record and courts other than courts of records. A court of record used to be a court which kept a record of its acts and judicial proceedings and had the power to punish a person for contempt. In modern practice, the only essential feature of a court of record is its power to punish for contempt of court. While all superior courts are courts of records, some inferior courts like the Magistrates’ courts are also courts of record. A superior court of record has the power to summarily punish content both in the court and outside the court, while an inferior court of record may only summarily punish contempt in the face of the court. Where the contempt of the inferior court of records is outside the court, the punishment may only be pronounced after formal proceedings against such a person.

The courts which the constitution makes provision for in section 6(5) and chapter 7 of the constitution are the superior courts of records. However, the legislature is vested with the power to create additional courts, and this power has been used to create inferior courts.