The Received English Law came to be due to the colonial history of Nigeria, where the colonial authority imposed its political rule and its legal regime consisting of the common law principles, doctrines of equity and statutes of general application. These principles applies to disputes that are tried in the High Courts and other Superior Courts to regulate property practice in Nigeria. The principles of common law are those principles and law of England formulated, developed and administered by the old common law courts, based originally on the common customs of England, and unwritten. Equity are body of rules formulated and administered by the Court to supplement the rules and procedure of the common law, with the object of rendering the administration of justice complete by granting relief where legal rigidity would otherwise not permit. Statute of general application are those enactments of the English parliament that were in existence in England as at January 1, 1900 the day in which the protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria were proclaimed, see Crowther, M., The Story of Nigeria, London: Faber and Faber, 1978, pages 188-206. Examples of such laws are the Statute of Fraud of 1677, Conveyancing Act of 1881 and the Wills Act of 1837, see Obilade, A. O., The Nigeria Legal System, Ibadan: Spectrum Law Publishing, 1990, p.11.

In Ude v. Nwara it was held that English law applies to property transactions in Nigeria where there is no comparable local legislation or customary law that applies to such transaction.


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