School of Law And Security Studies

Dr. Dorcas A. Odunaike
Dr. Dorcas A. Odunaike
Head of Department

Department of PRIVATE AND COMMERCIAL LAW

Welcome to the Department of Private and Commercial law

The Department of Private and Commercial Law is a department in the School of law and Security Studies that administers teaching and research in aspects of private and business law. The department is home to some of the world-leading experts in the areas of law that govern personal issues as well as commercial dealings, rights and obligations. Through cutting-edge teaching, research and policy-oriented endeavours, and leveraging on contemporary teaching aids as well as clinical legal (or students-centred) pedagogy, the department engages students and develops their critical thinking aptitude with regards to local and international laws that are relevant to private and commercial law. By way of specifics, the department focuses on developing students’ knowledge, understanding and competencies in spheres of contracts and business transactions, property dealings, the governance and regulation of corporations and of financial institutions and trade organisations, rights and obligations arising from healthcare, precautions against causing harm and reliefs for damages caused by harms in civil relations, and how to resolve personal and commercial disputes.   

In collaboration with the other departments, our department is totally committed to producing well-rounded, work-ready law graduates, with quality faith-based legal education, aimed at equipping our graduates with the values of integrity, probity and high sense of moral and ethical standards; graduates who have an exceptional understanding of private and commercial law, with a keen awareness of how these laws operate in practice and how they may be reformed, particularly, to address contemporary and emerging social and technological challenges. The Department’s research activities are diverse and pervasive, have intellectual depth and aim at making palpable positive impact on humanity and the world. The numerous works of our academics in the following wide-ranging areas of private and commercial law are disseminated through high-quality publications and by building on valuable research networks:  

• Banking and Finance Law  

• Commercial Law

• Company Law

• Contract Law

• Corporate Governance Law

• Intellectual Property Law    

• Land Law  

• Law of Torts

• Law and Technology

• Oil and Gas Law

The department compliments the quality of its academic staff with high quantity and in this connection, it currently has ten faculty, five of which are of Professorial cadre. The department’s academic workforce is also supported by equally competent and motivated non-teaching personnel.

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About Us

WELCOME TO THE BABCOCK UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF PRIVATE AND COMMERCIAL LAW 

Through our Department, BU offers a focused, purposeful and moral formation and reformation of a new breed of legal practitioners and well-equipped security industry against a backdrop of general insecurity in a post-military  civil  society.  These needs are glaring in every sphere of Nigerian public life civil, criminal, constitutional and economic matters. BU is an international university with affiliation with other universities across the globe under the supervision of the Seventh-day Adventist Church worldwide. We are a member of various reputable and focused academic and research bodies. Adapting the text of the famous quote by the world-renown educationist thinker, Ellen G. White, by substituting the word “lawyer” for “men”, the most adequate presentation of the rationale for a law programme at Babcock within the context of today's societal needs would be best summarized as follows:

The greatest want of the world is the want of (lawyers) (Lawyers) who will not be bought or sold, (lawyers) who in their inmost souls are true and honest, (lawyers) who do not fear to call sin by its right name, (lawyers) whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, (lawyers) who will stand for the right though the heavens fall. (Education, 57).

VISION STATEMENT

First class Seventh-day Adventist School of law, building lawyers equipped with security skill as servant-leaders for a better world.

MISSION STATEMENT

To provide highly ethical Christian professional training (preventive, protective, investigative, and scientific) in all branches of the Legal profession and the security environment within which they operate.

PHILOSOPHY 

Law operates on facts of life while security prospers on the preventive and investigative capacity of society to predict and prevent security breaches to life and property. It also provides an intuitive and deductive follow-up investigation to any cases of security violation and crime before critical evidence is tampered with or deteriorate to a state of non-reliability or disappear. A study of law without a knowledge of underlying social factors will produce a knowledge of abstract or 'non-living law'. Consequently, the LL.B. degree programme contain not only law courses, but also such relevant non-law courses designed to produce a better understanding of the functions and functioning of law in society; especially in the economic and management disciplines as well as psychology, information technology, forensics and security. Even in respect of specific courses the contents must be enriched in the light of contemporary development in social problem and legal thoughts. Examples of such additional courses include Gender Law, Environmental Law, Press and Electronic Media Law and Intellectual Property Law, Planning Law, Petroleum and Energy Law and Comparative Religious Law. The aim is to produce law graduates who will be able to place legal ordering within the proper perspective of societal needs in the light of social, cultural, economic, political and technological advancement. 

OBJECTIVES

The main objective of the law programme is to educate students on the Nigerian law and the comparative approach to legal studies in light of biblical principles and many systems of law currently in operation namely Statutory Law, Common Law, Customary Law and Islamic Law. The specific objectives are:

  1. to equip the law graduate with wide knowledge of law and its importance in the society 2021
  2. to produce first class faith based lawyers  as servant leaders in the society

Admission Requirements

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS

 

LL.B (Hons)

To be eligible for admission to the LL.B. degree programme, a candidate must possess

the following minimum qualifications:

(a)   Five (5) Credits at not more than two sittings in five subjects including English Language, Mathematics, Literature in English and any other subject at SSCE or GCE ordinary level.

(b)  An acceptable level of performance in the Joint Matriculation Admission Board Examinations as determined by the University authority. and

(c)   Successful performance at all levels of the BU admissions screening exercises.

 

The duration of the programme shall be a 5 year standard programme for students with SSCE,

GCE ‘O’Level or their equivalent. The normal duration for the LL.B. programme shall be

10 (ten) semesters.

 

Direct Entry Admission

Candidates with Advanced Level in Higher School Certificate or Bachelor of Arts degree holder from any accredited university with second class lower division may apply for admission into 200 level for the relevant undergraduate programmes. All eligible candidates must present their transcript and O’level result with credit in the English Language, Mathematics, Literature in English and any other subject.

 

DURATION OF PROGRAMME

The programme leading to the Bachelor of Laws -  LL.B (Hons.) degree covers a period of four or five (5) academic years/sessions depending on the mode of entry.

 

GRADUATION REQUIREMENT

A student shall qualify for the award of a degree in LL.B (Hons.) when the student has completed and passed all the courses he/she registered for, including all compulsory courses and such elective/optional courses as may be specified by the University/Faculty and obtained a minimum cumulative CGPA specified but not less than 2.00 and earned the minimum credits units of not less than 194 in accordance with the School Regulation. Each student is expected to be aware of the various requirements as published in the bulletin under which he/she plans to graduate. The bulletin in force at the time of initial registration is the binding document between the student and the University. However a student may file an official petition with the office of the Dean of the School requesting to be allowed to meet the requirements of another bulletin in force during his/her time of residence. The student’s freedom to choose the bulletin under which he/she will graduate has certain restrictions.