ICT AND THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEGAL STUDIES AND PRACTICE IN NIGERIA

In recent years, increased computing power, improved wireless and user-friendly technology and reduced telecommunication costs have contributed to lowering barriers to information access and exchange. The potential for using more innovative, cost-efficient and user-friendly ICT solutions in education and for reaching all groups of society – including the poor, those in remote areas and other disadvantaged groups has become increasingly feasible in less advanced countries and in more advanced ones. The opportunities for education arising from developments in information communication technologies are very promising.

In the past few decades, information and communication technologies have provided societies with a vast array of new communication capabilities. For example, people can communicate in real-time with others in different countries using technologies such as instant messaging and video-conferencing. Social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter allow users from all over the world to remain in contact and communicate on a regular basis. These technologies and platforms have created a “global village” in which people can communicate with others across the world as if they were living next door. For this reason, ICT could also be seen and analysed in the context of how modern communication technologies affect society.

What is ICT?

At this point, it is crucial to define ICT. ICT is an acronym that stands for Information Communication Technology – or Technologies. A good way to think about ICT is to consider all the uses of digital technology that already exist to help individuals, businesses and organisations use information.

ICT refers to technologies that provide access to information through telecommunications. ICT covers any product that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit or receive information electronically in a digital form. For example, this includes personal computers, digital television and robots. On a broader level, this also includes the internet, intranet, email, wireless networks, cell phones, and other communication mediums.

Essentially ICT is concerned with the storage, retrieval, manipulation, transmission or receipt of digital data. Importantly, it is also concerned with the way these different uses can work with each other.

What is Legal Studies?

Legal studies refer to an academic endeavour focused on learning laws, learning how to apply those laws and learning how to process transactions and legal claims on behalf of clients.

It is important to add here that it is my firm belief that legal studies should be interdisciplinary, multidimensional and liberal in its approach. Beyond engaging in the the meanings, values, practices and institutions of law and legality, the legal studies curriculum should as a matter of contemporary necessity cover and examine how the law shapes and is shaped by political, economic and cultural forces. The curriculum should be designed to stimulate critical understanding of and inquiry of the theoretical frameworks, historical dynamics and cultural involvement and integration in law.

What is Legal Practice?

Essentially legal practice is the application of the law and all its attendant dimensions and ramifications. In this context, the essence and relevance of studying law is to eventually practice it. It is also important to state here that legal practice should not be understood and explained from the very narrow prism of litigation alone, but we must view and explain legal practice as a multidimensional and sometimes multidisciplinary vocation that has the law as its hub.

Legal practice is sometimes used to distinguish the body of judicial or administrative precedents, rules, policies, customs and doctrines from legislative enactments such as statutes and constitutions which might be called “laws” in the strict sense of being commands to the general public, rather than only to a specific set of parties.

Objectives of ICT

Another question that readily comes to mind is; what are the main objectives of ICT within the context of legal studies and practice? It is considered that ICT should among other objectives:

1. Facilitate the storage, retrieval and dissemination of vital legal information for the successful pursuit of legal research and study.
2. Facilitate the performance of routine processes like the amendment of law, indexing and abstracting services.
3. Serve as a link among the various legal education institutions; as well as foster necessary cooperation and working relationship among them. This would also facilitate intellectual resource garnering and sharing.
4. Assist in the formulation of legal studies syllabus that would have universal acceptability and applicability.
5. Support learning and teaching in specialized areas of video conferencing, teleconferencing, group discussions, question and answer sessions and moot court trials.
6. Assist in the publication of research findings, law books, law reports, law journals and other valuable technical reports.
7. Generally allow or permit instant access to current information on an extensive scale.
8. Stimulate effective networking of various legal training institutions for the purpose of cross-fertilizing knowledge in various legal disciplines.
9. Enable large number of students and researchers to have ready access “to case law and other legal materials more efficiently than having them queue up for access to a limited number of books in the library.
10. Facilitate effective communication between teachers and students particularly in distance learning and continuing education programmes.

ICT in Legal Education

Speaking on the role of ICT in legal education, Dr. Tahir Mamman, Director General, Nigerian Law School stated in a paper titled “The Globalisation of Legal Practice: The Challenges For Legal Education in Nigeria” that developments and advances in ICT have had important impact on education and teaching and how it may be harnessed by law teachers. He further stated that the development and deployment of advanced computer assisted learning systems such as Law Courseware and IOLIS have changed dramatically the way students learn, created vast opportunities and ease in information, storage, retrieval and dissemination and facilitated collaborative activities. Dr. Mamman further briefly outlined some of the ICT platforms and their possible uses. These include:

E-mail communication - Through it, resources and questions may be posted to students and obviate the necessity for them to physically go for such resources and their responses returned in like manner. The criticism is however made that, it removes the values derived from social contact among students and staff, as well as the absence of face-to-face discussions, etc.

Diverse Electronic Discussion Forums - Forums such as Facebook, Twitter and various chat rooms enables participants pose questions and articulate views on diverse academic issues. This is invariably very suitable for large class academic activities and has the potential to go beyond teachers and students.

Legal Data Bases -This is in use in many law schools across the world to access legal resources, most common of which are LEXISNEXIS and WESTLAW. Data bases house a huge amount of data and knowledge which are available for research, teaching and practice after qualification as a lawyer. Since in large measure, legal research will be conducted by lawyers in practice, it is only appropriate that students gain the requisite experience and skills during their education and training in the university and vocational law school. Moreover, cybercrimes can better be understood and learnt through understanding ICT, being the mechanism through which it is committed, as well as electronically generated evidence.

Video Conferencing - This medium holds a lot of promise in teaching and research, especially for the injection of international and comparative flavor in the curricula as it will enable guest speakers from long distances share resources. It could create a global classroom for students from several institutions to participate in the same course, through bilateral and multilateral arrangements. This meduim holds even more promise for students and academics in developing countries to share resources with their colleagues in better endowed regions without having to travel and facilitate better understanding of the various legal models and standards which exist elsewhere.

Benefits of ICT

1. Development of a Skilled ICT Labour Force: Investments in ICT for legal education and practicing lawyers would certainly enhance the development of a skilled, “ICT-capable” labour force that could attract direct foreign investment, as well as research and development activities. This would also engender university – private sector links that are important drivers of innovation and growth in advanced economies.
2. Encourage Open Communication: Along with having the potential to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom, ICT in legal education has the potential to encourage open communication between and among students, faculty, and others that support active learning and knowledge construction.
3. Supports Academic Research: ICT makes available information and resources supporting academic research that would not otherwise be accessible.
4. Fosters Development of Academic Materials: ICT fosters development of learning materials, presentations and lectures in an interactive manner that allows faculty to deliver them to and share them with students directly.
5. Fosters Open Distance Learning (ODL): The flexibility and accessibility enabled by ICT has fostered and encouraged Open Distance Learning (ODL), wherein the teacher is removed in space and/or time from the student and most communication is through an electronic medium (e.g. internet, radio, television or computer).

Constraints to the Optimisation of ICT

A lot of obstacles face the attainment of the maximum goal of Information Communication Technology in developing countries like Nigeria. Some of the problems or constraints with the optimisation of ICT include among others:

1. Lack of Infrastructure: There are the universally acknowledged problems of infrastructures like electricity and telephone facilities.
2. Lack of Interest and Awareness: There is generally a lack of interest in ICT, coupled with the low level of awareness and education ICT.
3. Computer Literacy: Computer literacy is still essentially at its rudimentary stage. It is also urban-oriented, very elitist and highly restricted in scope.
4. Lack of Priority: Priority is given to commercial and profit-yielding ventures over educational and other public-oriented social programmes.
5. Lack of Funding: Funding is the crux of the matter. The bulk of resources available to legal education and the judicial institutions are from the various tiers of government. The effect is that legal training institutions and the entire spectrum of the judiciary have to scramble for available meagre resources with other departments of the government. The legal education institutions and the judiciary are the worst for it since they are not designed as revenue-generating units. There have been spirited clamour for improved funding for legal education and training institutions and this would foster a sustainable ICT environment for better performance. In this regard, it is important to note that alternative sources of funding to complement subvention from governments is advocated to solve this problem.

The Law Vis-a-Vis ICT

The world has seen an unprecedented wind of change with the emergence of ICT and its constant innovations and improvements. ICT seems to have pervaded and permeated every facet and layer of life in today’s world. These days, there is hardly any layer of human interaction, relationship or endeavour that ICT is not in one way or the other involved. In commercial transactions, banking, health, transport and education, ICT now plays an integral and important role in these sectors. Given this assertion above, it then follows that the law and the development of every nation’s legal system must as a matter of urgency and necessity adapt to these realities brought to the fore by the ICT revolution. The law needs to respond and adapt to the ICT revolution. It is with this background that we commend the recent passage of Nigeria’s new Evidence Act in 2011.

The inestimable benefits of the various advancements in ICT have until the enactment of the new Evidence Act in 2011 remained a matter of much debate and judicial uncertainty. Tendering of electronic mails (“emails”) for example are usually as contentious and acrimonious as the litigation itself, with the opposite party usually relying on the hearsay rule, among other forms of objections under the old Evidence Act 1945, to prevent the admission of such electronically generated evidence. The enactment of the Evidence Act, 2011 has attempted to correct some of the difficulties that the admissibility of electronically generated evidence do encounter in Nigerian Courts.

It is important to point out here that the law must adapt itself to contemporary realities in any society. It then means that nations, legislatures and legal practitioners that ignore the realities of the ICT revolution would be doing this at the expense and peril of their nations or societies. The laws of any nation must respond to the realities of the ICT revolution if the nation and its structures can be relevant in today’s world; this is particularly true with the proliferation of cyber crimes and legally binding online commercial transactions going on in today’s world.

In conclusion, it is important to add that the government, non-governmental organisations, universities and well meaning individuals have a very crucial role to play in funding the use and development of ICT in legal studies and education generally. The government and NGO’s also have a very important role to play in mobilising and consientising the populace (especially in rural areas) on the use of ICT.

Globalization driven by ICT is having a phenomenal impact on the acquisition of legal and other relevant learning, teaching and research materials in law libraries across the country. Through ICT, lawyers and students can have access to current court proceedings/cases and law reports anywhere, any time and in any form in the country. There is no doubt that the integration of ICT into the practice of law is of much benefit to the profession in Nigeria in the 21st century. ICT is a remarkable tool for providing comprehensive, current and timely legal services to the citizenry. The relevance of ICT adoption and utilization in the Nigerian legal system for effective and efficient legal service delivery is a contributory factor to sustainable development and the delivery of justice in Nigeria.