Amodu Tijani v Secretary, Southern Nigeria
{{Italic title}}{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}{{Use Nigerian English|date=April 2021}}{{Short description|1921 court case}}
Amodu Tijani v Secretary, Southern Nigeria [1921] 2 AC 399, [1921] UKPC 80, also known as the Apapa land case, was a decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council concerning land title.
Background and lower courts
The controversy at issue in the case arose in 1913, when the colonial government of Nigeria appropriated land in Apapa, pursuant to the Public Land (Acquisition) Ordinance 1903, in order to give it to European merchants.{{sfn|Ibhawoh|2013|pp=128–129}}{{sfn|Elias|1951|pp=50–51}} The land was occupied by the Oluwa chiefly family of Lagos, under the leadership of Amodu Tijani.{{sfn|Elias|1951|pp=50–51}} Tijani argued before the Nigerian courts that he was owed compensation for the expropriation, because the land belonged to him personally.{{sfn|Ibhawoh|2013|p=129}} His claim was unsuccessful.{{sfn|Ibhawoh|2013|p=129}}Amodu Tijani v Secretary, Southern Provinces (1915) 3 NLR 24; (1918) 3 NLR 35. This case discussed the English doctrine of tenure. More of the background of this case were discussed by Alonso and Adadi in their view of the English doctrine of tenure. Their view was based on the Uganda view of the doctrine of tenure and that of the English doctrine of tenure.
Privy Council
The Privy Council, reversing the judgments below,{{sfn|Park|1964|p=38}} held that although the territory of the Lagos Colony had been ceded to the imperial Crown in 1861 under the Lagos Treaty of Cession{{sfn|Park|1964|p=38}} and the Crown thereby acquired allodial title to the land, the Crown held only a "limited right of administrative interference" with the land and was required to pay compensation for using it.{{sfn|Ibhawoh|2013|p=130}}{{sfn|Elias|1951|pp=50–51}} Tijani, as the leader of the community living on the land, held usufructuary rights on the community's behalf.{{Cite book|last=Alexandrowicz|first=Charles Henry|title=The European-African Confrontation: A Study in Treaty Making|date=1973|publisher=Sijthoff|language=en|oclc=1149020078|page=103}} The Privy Council's decision established that land rights at customary law could be enforced by imperial courts.{{sfn|Ibhawoh|2013|p=129}}{{sfn|Park|1964|pp=42, 45–46}} Kent McNeil argues that Tijani follows a presumption that property rights at private law continue in force despite a change in sovereign control over territory.{{Cite book|last=McNeil|first=Kent|author-link=Kent McNeil|title=Common Law Aboriginal Title|date=1989|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-825223-4|oclc=18134954|pages=171–172}}
Ben Silverstein calls Tijani "perhaps the most important of the Privy Council's decisions on native title".{{sfn|Silverstein|2007|p=68}}
== See also ==
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- {{Cite journal|last=Elias|first=T. O.|date=1951|title=Nigeria's Contribution to Colonial Law|journal=Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law|volume=33|pages=49–55|issn=1479-5949|jstor=754333}}
- {{Cite book|last=Ibhawoh|first=Bonny|title=Imperial Justice: Africans in Empire's Court|date=2013-10-03|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-966484-9|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199664849.001.0001}}
- {{Cite journal|last=Park|first=AEW|title=The Cession of Territory and Private Land Rights: A Reconsideration of the Tijani Case|journal=Nigerian Law Journal|volume=1|issue=1|date=November 1964|pages=38–49|via=HeinOnline|url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/nlj1&div=10&id=&page=}}
- {{Cite journal|last=Silverstein|first=Ben|date=January 2007|title=The Rule of Native Title: A View of Mabo in the British Empire|journal=Griffith Law Review|language=en|volume=16|issue=1|pages=55–82|doi=10.1080/10383441.2007.10854582|issn=1038-3441}}
External links
- {{cite BAILII|litigants=Amodu Tijani v Secretary, Southern Nigeria|court=UKPC|year=1921|num=80|format=1}}