The Freedom of Information Act 2011: an unwieldy piece of legislation for the Nigerian courts?

Nigeria joined the trend present in other democratic nations by enacting the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 2011. Now just five years old, the law intends to promote openness and transparency by making public records and information freely available to the people as part of a good governance regime. As the law provides for judicial review, torrents of applications are now before the courts. The paper analyses the FOIA against the backdrop of these decisions. In addition, this article argues that some sections of the law are clumsy and may prevent its effective use. The paper proposes law reforms to clear the ambiguity in the court cases and an amendment of the unwieldy sections. It recommends change in the internal culture of government to openness, acceptance by public institutions and willingness on the part of the judges to implement it as critical factors for FIOA success.     

DNA analysis and the Freedom of Information Act: information or invasion?

This note explores the possibility of release of an individual's DNA analysis to any person who requests it through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), after an individual's post-aircraft accident DNA profile has been developed by the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI). It analyzes whether the request would fall under the FOIA's 552(b)(6) exemption, which weighs a person's privacy interest against any public interest in such information, or if the release would constitute a "clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."     

Trial and Error at the End of Life--No Harm Done?

English law gives the competent patient the right to refuselife-saving medical treatment, either contemporaneously or inan advance directive, and a physician commits a battery whentreating a patient who validly refused treatment. However, withregard to the details of a physician's liability, many questionsremain unanswered, and it is not at all clear under what circumstancesa patient's tort action for unwanted life-saving treatment willsucceed, and what remedies would be available to the patient.The article suggests that a physician should be liable in batteryfor administering life-saving treatment, even if he/she haddoubts about the validity of the patient's treatment refusal,unless a defence of reasonable mistake can be established. Furthermore,in case of a battery which resulted in keeping the patient alive,the patient should not only be able to claim nominal damages,but general and special damages, including mental and physicalpain and suffering caused by the prolongation of the patient'slife, should equally be available.     

The crime of the century? The case for the Holocaust

With the twentieth century now ended the Holocaust is surelya leading contender for the title of ``The Crime of the Century.'Although a massive literature exists on the Holocaust, very littleof this literature has been produced by criminologists. Somereasons for this relative neglect are identified and a case ismade for the claim that criminology can contribute to anunderstanding of the Holocaust and that the Holocaust cancontribute to the development of a more profound criminology. Thispaper draws upon an integrative criminological approach toconstruct a framework for understanding the Holocaust. This multi-disciplinary framework links philosophical, sociolegal,sociological, behavioral and criminological dimensions todiscriminate between unique and non-unique aspects of the Holocaustas a case of genocide and as crime. The paper closes with someobservations on the relevance of the Holocaust for challengesconfronting a twenty-first century criminology.     

Positive obligations under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights: the duty of the Nigerian Government to enact a Freedom of Information Act

Beginning with the Independence Constitution of 1960, the right to freedom of information and other civil and political rights have been guaranteed by successive Nigerian Constitutions as fundamental human rights. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, which incorporated the provisions of the African Charter on Human and People’s Right into Nigerian law in 1983 consolidated these and a plethora of other social, economic and cultural rights and imposed a positive duty on the government to adopt legislative and other measures to give them effect. This article develops this potentially revolutionary principle of positive obligations, which amazingly remains unsung and unused more than a quarter of a century after it became an integral part of Nigerian law. The first part of the article proposes the principle as the most effective basis to compel the enactment of a Freedom of Information legislation, which successive governments have refused to enact despite overwhelming public support and sustained lobbying for a Freedom of Information Bill first introduced in the National Assembly in 1997. The second part critically analyses the latest (2007) version of the Bill. It concludes that its provisions are inadequate to give effect to the right to freedom of information in view of the legal and bureaucratic environment under which it will operate, and suggests remedial measures.     

Why Snowden and not Greenwald? On the Accountability of the Press for Unauthorized Disclosures of Classified Information

Law and Philosophy - In 2013, following the leaks by Edward Snowden, The Guardian published a number of classified NSA documents. Both leaking and publishing leaks violate the law prohibiting...     

The House of Lords – Into the Future?

The idea for presenting these opinions on the future of the House of Lords as an article grew out of a seminar held in the House of Lords in February 2006, an event that itself grew from the contributions to the book Parliament in the Twenty-First Century, a collection of 30 essays from academics, commentators and politicians.1 1. N. D. J. Baldwin (ed.), Parliament in the Twenty-First Century (London: Politico's, 2005). The seminar saw presentations from Lord Howe, Lord McNally and Lord Carter, and it is their observations that follow here.2 2. Lord Howe: Geoffrey Howe was Chancellor of the Exchequer (1979–83), Foreign Secretary (1983–89) and Deputy Prime Minister (1989–90); Lord McNally: Tom McNally is Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords; Lord Carter: Denis Carter, Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords from 1997 to 2002. Sadly, Denis Carter died on the 18th December 2006. A skilled practitioner in the role of Chief Whip, he won respect from all sides of the House for his knowledge and understanding of the way the House operates and for his forthright and honest approach both to the business of the House and to his fellow peers. He is much missed by all those who knew him.      

Beyond the Law?: The Justice of Deconstruction

This paper offers a close reading of Derridas essay Force of Law that emphasises the twin strengths of a deconstructive approach to questions of law and justice -- textual analysis and political context. Derridas interest is in limit or test cases, and so he engages with the fraying edges of the law, its borders, the frontiers that are most heavily policed because they are most fragile, for example capital punishment, genocide, general strikes and terrorism. Derrida undertakes an exploration of violence through a reinterpretation of Walter Benjamins Critique of Violence. At the heart of Derridas difficult argument is a demand for justice that goes beyond the cataloguing of specific injustices, and beyond the terms of Benjamins critique. The utopian impulse that underpins Force of Law is carried over into Specters of Marx, Derridas recent explicit grappling with the legacy of Marxism. The links between these two texts by Derrida implies a sustained politics of radical commitment on the part of deconstruction, a commitment to future forms of legality and egalitarianism, a theory of justice posited upon prescience rather than precedent.     

Déjà vu! The effect of previewing test items on the validity of the Concealed Information polygraph Test

Abstract

This research compares resident, peer and staff reports of bullying and victimization in one open facility and one secure facility for young offenders. The prevalence of bullies and victims was higher according to resident reports (self-reports) than according to peer or staff reports. There was significant agreement between residents, peers, and staff in identifying bullies and victims. The majority of bullies and victims identified by peers and/or staff were also identified by self-reports. Making the plausible assumption that bullies and victims tend to be concealed, it is concluded that self-reports (in the context of an individual interview) provide the most reliable and valid information about bullies and victims in young offender institutions. Hence, anti-bullying strategies should be based on self-report data.