A historical proclamation outlines how a new Criminal Code will govern Northern Nigeria.
It consolidates, clarifies, and amends the region’s law to protect public order and establish clear punishment rules.
This edition presents the 1904 proclamation that declares the Code of Criminal Law as the law of the Protectorate from its operative date. It also explains how existing proclamations are repealed and how the Code should be interpreted alongside other instruments. The text covers who may be punished, how offences are classified, and how penalties are calculated and applied. Clearest of all is the move to unify disparate laws into a single framework for criminal justice.
- An overview of the Code’s structure, including chapters on interpretation, offences, punishments, and criminal responsibility.
- Guidance on how orders, proclamations, regulations, and other instruments relate to the Code.
- Rules for determining when a person may be punished, and how double punishment is avoided.
- Provisions about who may testify, and how women’s testimony and marital communications are treated.
Ideal for readers of legal history, colonial law, and studies of how criminal codes were created and implemented in the early 20th century.