APPLICABILITY OF NATURAL LAW PRINCIPLES TO THE LAW OF NEGLIGENCE IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The essence of creation of man in any environment is to interact, relate and have dealings with each other, in these relationships, certain level of moral standards is expected to be maintained which has necessitated the need for a guiding of conduct.

Hence, the introduction of the law which is regarded as rules, and principles set out in order to streamline the activities of man with each other.

Natural law theory emphasizes that, law has a divine or supernatural origin and for human laws to be legally valid, they must conform to nature of man and dictates of reason. Human laws should stand or fall according to the dictates of the latter, just as the sun is ordained to rise from the the east.

Also, as it is unavoidable that a man should interact with one another , the law of Negligence presumes the existence of a duty of care towards each other, it is however of no doubt that acts and omissions are bound to arise from such interactions which may result into unforeseen damages especially , when negligence is involved.

Thus, in the course of this work, effort will be geared towards focusing on how the natural law can be embedded into the modern law of negligence i.e the law as it is and the law as it ought to be. By so doing, a framework for harmonizing the two laws would have been provided.