Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons Under International Law: A Critique of the Laws (Published)
In spite of the existence of the 1973 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally-Protected Persons and other conventions on the prevention and punishment of crimes under international law, crimes against Internationally-Protected Persons continue to occur at an alarming rate. This dissertation is a critique of the laws on prevention and punishment of crimes against Internationally-Protected Persons. The general aim of the dissertation is to critically review the regulations on the prevention and punishment of crimes against Internationally-Protected Persons under international law. In dealing with the task of this dissertation, the doctrinal method of research, among others was adopted. References were made to all necessary source materials, for example the laws, textbooks and journals. After gathering information, the following observations came to the fore: the broad immunity granted under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 has in certain cases been exploited to obstruct international justice; there is a lack of robust enforcement mechanisms under the relevant international conventions and there is jurisdictional challenges, for example, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) does not explicitly grant the ICC jurisdiction over such crimes, unless they fall within the broader categories of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity. Based on these observations, the following recommendations were proffered: there should be an amendment of the 1973 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally-Protected Persons, so as to incorporate specific enforcement provisions or a supervisory authority to ensure compliance and there should be the expansion of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court to cover crimes against Internationally-Protected Persons. The following are the contributions to knowledge: the study identified and systematically analysed the practical challenges associated with the enforcement of international legal protections for Internationally-Protected Persons; and the study has proposed an amendment to the 1973 Internationally-Protected Persons Convention to, include enforcement mechanisms and the creation of a supervisory body, that is the Internationally-Protected Persons Authority
Keywords: Crimes, International law, Prevention, Punishment, internationally protected persons
Fighting Judicial Corruption in Nigeria (Published)
This paper examines the fight against judicial corruption in Nigeria. It analyses the arrest of judges and legal practitioners in respect of corrupt practices. It also re-echoes government effort at tackling judicial corruption through the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. It questions the powers of the Department of State Services in respect of investigation and arrest over corrupt practices. It further examines the sanctity of the judiciary in the effort at ridding the judiciary of corruption in Nigeria. The paper also makes comparison with some selected jurisdictions such as the United States of America and Ghana which provide some useful lessons for Nigeria. The paper concludes that there is the need for judicial officers and legal practitioners to shun corrupt practices because judicial corruption diminishes public confidence and interest in the judiciary.
Keywords: Arrest, Corruption, Judiciary, Prosecution, Punishment, Sanctity
Criminal Protection of the Personal Electronic Data Privacy (Published)
The right to privacy is one of the most important rights associated with the legal personality, and the protection, processing, maintaining and non-disclosure of personal data and information to others is one of the most important and greatest forms of privacy or the sanctity of private life. Maintaining human secrets is the essence and basis of guaranteeing freedom of privacy against violating others, and here the role of the legal rules that govern and regulate issues of this protection appears through the legislations that they enact to ensure that they are not infringed or disclosed, and by establishing the deterrent punishment against the perpetrators of these acts.As a result of relying on modern technology in various aspects of contemporary life and the increasing in the amount of data possessed by the state and private institutions, this matter leads the legislator to carefully consider how the data that contains information about individuals is collected and saved and the possibility of violating their privacy that may result through misuse it. Therefore, the urgent need has arisen to criminalize the illegal collecting of personal data, disclosure it, or unlawful transfer it.
Keywords: Disclosure, Privacy, Punishment, criminalization, personal data