A binate regulatory framework for the accreditation of law faculties in Nigerian universities: a necessity or overkill?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Nigeria operates a binate regulatory system for legal education under the regulatory control of the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Council of Legal Education (CLE), which regulate the law faculties of universities and the Nigerian Law School respectively. Both regulatory bodies carry out periodic visitation exercises to confer accreditation status on the law faculties accordingly. Against the standards of the UK Better Regulation Principles (BRP) of proportionality, accountability, consistency, transparency and targeting, this paper examined the effectiveness of the NUC and CLE in exercising their regulatory functions in the regulation of legal education. In its assessment, this paper finds that the binate system falls short of the BRP. Its sanction of withdrawal of accreditation is rather extreme and not fit for instances of minor malfeasance. The activities of the binate regulatory bodies are left unsupervised and the court usually refrains from intervention. Hence, among other things, this paper suggests joint action of both bodies in carrying out accreditation exercises, which will ensure consistency and save costs. The court should also intervene in appropriate instances to prevent abuse of regulatory powers.