What is public interest litigation in Nigeria?
Emily Wilson
Updated on May 23, 2026
Public Interest Litigation (PIL) refers to the practice of precipitating social change through court decisions that reform legal rules, enforce existing laws and articulate public norms. It has as its prime objective the promotion of the public good.
What is public interest in Nigeria?
Black Law Dictionary 7th Edition page 944 defines litigation as: “The process of carrying on a law suit.” Public Interest is defined in the same dictionary as: “(1) The general welfare of the public that warrant recognition and protection.
What is public lawyering?
Public interest lawyering is a process of legal empowerment aimed at capacity building of everyday people towards using the law and institutions to bring about social change. In public interest lawyering, general people and community takes the lead in an active process while working hand in hand with lawyers.
What is locus standi in Nigeria law?
Locus standi is the right of appearance in a court of law to litigate or ventilate an issue. A party instituting an action in court must have a locus standi. He must have the legal capacity to invoke the judicial power entrenched in Section 6(6) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
What is the principle of locus standi?
Locus Standi means the legal capacity to sue or approach courts. Under both the inquisitorial and adversarial system, the parties approaching the courts must have been aggrieved or deprived of their rights. Thus, in any legal process, the existence of locus standi is necessary.
What is the meaning of spidel?
Section on Public Interest and Development Law (SPIDEL)
How is locus standi calculated?
The SCA considered the requirements for locus standi, being that the appellant must have an adequate interest in the subject matter of the litigation; the interest must not be too remote; the interest must be actual; and the interest must be current (not hypothetical), and concluded that the court a quo rightly found …
Is public interest litigation and public interest lawyering the same?
While this is an abstract term for the concept of public interest litigation, according to some, public interest lawyering is the act of Public interest lawyering which is a process of legal empowerment aimed at capacity building of everyday people towards using the law and institutions to bring about social change.
How do you prove locus standi?
What is the test of locus standi?
The issue of locus standi is technically a preliminary one for the administrative action of judicial review. Essentially, locus standi is the way in which the courts determine who may be an applicant for judicial review.