Theorising the Relationship Between Human Rights and Private Law in Nigerian Courts: An Original Framework

The relationship between human rights norms and private law in Nigeria is a theoretically underdeveloped yet practically significant question, as courts increasingly encounter private disputes in which constitutional fundamental rights have direct implications for the outcome, requiring a principled account of how human rights and private law interact in the Nigerian adjudicative framework. This study theorises the relationship between human rights and private law in Nigerian courts, developing an original Human Rights-Private Law Interface Framework (HRPLIF) that provides a theoretically coherent account of how constitutional rights should influence private law adjudication, development, and reform in Nigeria. Using a pluralist theoretical methodology integrating constitutional theory, comparative human rights and private law scholarship from South Africa, Germany, and Canada, and empirical research involving 40 constitutional law scholars, human rights lawyers, and private law practitioners in Lagos, Abuja, and Enugu supplemented by doctrinal analysis of 55 cases from 2013 to 2024, the research maps the existing patterns of human rights influence on Nigerian private law and identifies the gaps that the HRPLIF addresses. The framework distinguishes between direct horizontal effect, indirect radiating effect, and remedial constitutionalisation as three distinct modes of human rights-private law interaction, providing original criteria for their appropriate deployment in Nigerian adjudication. Findings reveal that Nigerian courts have applied human rights norms in private law cases in an unprincipled and under-theorised manner that risks distorting both constitutional and private law doctrine. Recommendations include judicial guidelines, Supreme Court development of HRPLIF principles, and academic curriculum integration across constitutional and private law. Keywords: human rights, private law, horizontal effect, constitutional rights, Nigerian courts