Issues in the Application and Enforcement of International Treaties before a National Court: Nigeria and Selected Jurisdictions in Perspective

Nigeria has ratified international treaties on a wide range of subjects, some of them have been domesticated thereby guaranteeing their domestic application before Nigerian Courts. Some others (a whole lot) even though ratified are yet to be domesticated in Nigeria, thereby casting a big doubt on their applicability before a Nigerian court, in view of the provisions of section 12 of the 1999 constitution. This paper examined some issues in the application of international treaties before a Nigerian court. Also, it considered the place of treaty in the hierarchy of norms in Nigeria. This paper went further to examine whether a national court can interpreted international law, among other issues. The methodology adopted in this work is the doctrinal (desk-based) research method, which relied on both primary and secondary sources of data, which were subjected to content and contextual analysis. The significance of this paper is that it has further deepened the law on this area. It is the finding thereof, that the courts (Nigerian courts in particular) need more dosage of judicial activism to be able to implement or apply treaties domestically, especially those bothering on human rights, liberty and freedom. It ended with some concluding remarks and recommendations.

Keywords: international law, domestic courts, treaties, implementation, state responsibility, Nigeria.