COMPARATIVE APPRAISAL OF OFFENCE CLASSIFICATIONS AND STANDARD OF PROOF UNDER NIGERIAN CRIMINAL LAW AND SHARI’AH JURISPRUDENCE

Abstract

Involvement in crimes has become universal phenomenon. The need to have legal instruments for deterring people from crimes becomes a necessity. The law thus continues to play its role of social control vide criminal justice administration. The familiar legal regime of crime control in Nigeria is the Nigerian criminal law. However, there is little exposition to the Shari’ah criminal jurisprudence since very few States have taste of it. Most legal practitioners versed in the law, practices and procedures of Nigerian criminal law usually mixed up them up with that Shari’ah criminal law and procedures. To address this problem, this paper discusses the topical issues of classification of offences and the standard required for proof of crimes in criminal cases by comparative appraisal of the Nigerian criminal law and Shari’ah criminal procedures. Vide reliance on the legal research doctrinal method, this paper comparatively appraises the classification of offences and the standard required for proof of crimes in criminal cases under the Nigerian criminal law as well as Shari’ah criminal jurisprudence. The paper thus orchestrates the areas of similarities and dissimilarities between the Nigerian criminal law and Shari’ah criminal procedures with respect to the areas of offence classification and the standard required for proof of crimes in criminal cases. This paper recommends shifting of interest to Shari’ah criminal jurisprudence for mastery of the legal system.