Sotonye Big-Alabo

Baron De Montesquieu's Doctrine of Separation of Powers and the Independence of the Judiciary in Nigeria

This study examines the independence of the judicial arm in Nigeria's current democratic engagement, using Montesquieu's doctrine of separation of powers as a theoretical framework. The existing literature on judicial independence in Nigeria tends to focus on constitutional provisions without sufficiently applying Montesquieu's tripartite framework as a diagnostic lens; this paper addresses that gap. Employing the hermeneutic method — specifically a Gadamerian interpretive approach — to analyse Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws (1748) as the primary text, the analysis …