Library Section

LIBRARY DEPARTMENT

History
The systematic reform and development of the Law requires a specialized library with Law research collections, serving mainly the legal research officers.
Information in this regard, is an indispensable requisite or condition for the progressive study of legal history and law development, comparative analysis and research. the above statement might have informed the founding fathers to entrench the establishment of a functional Law library in the Act that established the commission.

Establishment
Section 5(4) of the nigerian Law Reform Commission Act provides for the establishment of the law library. and it states that:

"For the purpose of the efficient performance of its functions unde the Act, the commission may from time to time, obtain such informations as to the legal systems of other countries as appear to it likely to facilitate the performance of any such function."

The Law Library
Therefore, the law library was established in1979 with the appointment of Mrs. Nadesh Akindele, a professional librarian who with the support of the commission formulated the take-off policy. The commission maintains an appreciable medium size library with 25,000 volumes of books including law reports and journals, and provides the information required in fulfilling the statutory objectives of law reform activities. These include:

  • Provision of reference and referral services.
  • Loan services.
  • Selection and acquisition of legal and allied materials.
  • Inter-Library loan.
  • Current awareness service.
  • Bibliographic services.
  • Reader's services.
  • Book technical processing (cataloging and classification).
  • Updating of statutes, Newspaper cuttings, etc.

The law library stock contains core collections of Nigerian and Foreign legal materials and publications of law reform agencies worlwide. Our collectios can be accessed through the Card catalogues arranged in three separate parts; namely the Author/Title, The subject, and the Classified Sections respectively. The present commission headed by Justice O. O. Somolu has further upgraded the library through recent acquisitions of reading carrels, double and single sided steel shelves, security check-in lockers and circulation tables, as well as core legal reference materials and books to update the library collections to meet international standards in service delivery.

Sale of Law Reform Publications
added to the Library functions, is the sale of all published research works of the commission. The underlisted law reform publications are available for purchase in the library and on-site at any of our out-door activities, such as seminars, workshops and conferences. They include:

  1. The Nigerian Law reform Journals Vols. 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5
  2. Reform of Marriage Act 1981
  3. Report of the Labour Law 1987
  4. Report on Pre-1900 statutes of General Application in Nigeria 1991
  5. Report on Nigerian Company Law 1991
  6. Report on Industrial Property Law 1991
  7. Focus on Law Reform 1991
  8. Reform of Land Use Act 1992
  9. Reform of Prisons 1991, and 1993
  10. Nigerian Law Reform Journal - 1996 NLRJ
  11. Report on existing Federal Laws and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 2000
  12. Reform of Evidence Act 1991, Updated in 2003
  13. Reform of Uniform High court Rules (Civil Procedure)
  14. Working Paper on the Reform of family law 2005 Vol. 1, 2 & 3

Computerization of the Library
There is an ongoing computerization of the entire Commission including the library. It is hoped that by the year 2007, the library services would be on the internet.