چکیده:
Every society is governed by certain rules (the law), customs, norms and values; and these are
intricately crucial to the maintenance of public morality. Invariably, there is a public morality which provides the cement of any human society; the law, especially the criminal law, must regard it as a primary function to reflect and maintain this public morality. Criminal Codes lay down various offences categorized as criminal or immoral, for they lay down ‘Offences against morality’ (including rape, elopement, indecent assaults, defilement, detention with sexual intention, prostitution, abortion, unnatural offences and incest); but these are mainly sexual offences or offences related thereto. They do not capture enough of but has prevailed over what count as moral values or public morality. It is thus quite evident that the law reduces the concept of morality to just one small aspect. This narrow interpretation of morality is deficient because it downplays the full involvement of the people who are to be affected by these laws. This is the laxity and bane of current evolution and application of the law among modern Africa states. Thus, the important issue was the critical question of the relationship between the law and morality; should the law determine public morality or should public morality determine the law? This question has confronted major western theorists and jurists for decades. This article adumbrated this claim and concluded that the law, at least, in traditional Africa (as expressed in the experience of the Etsako of Nigeria), is an arm of public norms and morality; in other words, that public morality is a metalaw.
خلاصه ماشینی:
"Law as Complement to Public Morality In traditional African communities, Radbruch’s claim that "The fundamental principles of humanitarian morality were part of the very concept of legality and that no positive enactment or statute, however clearly it expressed and however clearly it conformed with the formal criteria of validity of a given legal system, could be valid if it contravened the basic principles of morality" (Hart, 1958) applies.
Then, what is likely to happen if the law in contemporary African states continues to ignore or underestimate the power and the influence of the culture, morality, values and the common good of the people for which the law is made?
Historical argument: Historical studies have reasonably shown that indeed Africa has had a long history of human culture and history, morality and law, legal system and other social systems which have allowed it to grow, protect and promote human life in the most hostile physical environment and extend the gift of life to all other continents of the world.
Legal experts, Law Reform Commissions, and African Parliaments should fully ensure that adequate consultation and scientific study of various peoples’ public morality are made so that these laws are in conformity with people’s centrality of the human person, the community and the most cherished values on which African societies have been founded, nurtured and developed.
Legal experts, Law Reform Commissions, and African Parliaments should fully ensure that adequate consultation and scientific study of various peoples’ public morality are made so that these laws are in conformity with people’s centrality of the human person, the community and the most cherished values on which African societies have been founded, nurtured and developed."