Abstract: | Generally there is a tendency among scholars of African law to take the 'reception' of European law and legal institutions in Africa for granted, as if to say that it is redundant to know how they came to be established on the African soil. However, a historical analysis of European law and legal institutions in Africa may yield some insight into the nature of African legal institutions as they are today. This paper, a plea for the historical dimension in African legal studies, discusses the role of the self-taught local attorneys in the English-type courts in Lagos before the legal profession, as it is known now, established itself. Notes. |