ABSTRACT

The Legal Education Act 1962 introduced a two tier structure of legal education. The first tier involves academic training in accredited universities whilst the second tier involves vocational training at the Nigerian Law School. Following a major curriculum reform in 1989 by the National Universities Commission (a federal agency that lays down minimum standards for all universities in the country), the period spent at a university in Nigeria for the study of law was extended to five years (and six years in the case of part time study). In 1990/91 the new curriculum was implemented, designed to introduce more compulsory and optional non-law courses into law degree programmes so as to make legal education at the first tier more liberal and interdisciplinary.