Nigeria

• The Constitution of 1999, the highest law
• Federal and state statutes, and English statutes and common law that were received into Nigerian law
• Customary law, which applies in many family and land matters
• Islamic law, in the Sharia courts of the northern states

• The Supreme Court at the top
• The Court of Appeal, then the Federal High Court and the State High Courts
• Customary courts and Sharia courts of appeal in the states that have them

A law degree (LLB), then a year at the Nigerian Law School and a Call to the Bar. Nigeria has a single profession: barrister and solicitor.

• Three legal sources live side by side: common law, customary law and Islamic law.
• Sharia courts operate in the northern states for personal-law matters, and some states apply Islamic criminal law for Muslims.
• The legal profession is united, not split into barristers and solicitors.
• English cases are still cited, but are persuasive, not binding.

United Kingdom, India, Ghana, Pakistan, South Africa

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Nigeria as: Common law, Muslim, Customary. It names the systems in order of importance.

The map colours a country by the first-named system, and shows both civil-law and common-law countries as “mixed”. It is a simplification, and real systems are rarely pure.

Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Cook Islands, Dominica, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, India, Ireland, Jamaica.

• Supreme Court of Nigeria

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.