THE FACULTY OF LAW was established in 1962 as one of the foundation teaching units of the University of Lagos. Teaching in the Faculty began in October 1962 with an academic staff of five persons (two Nigerians and three Englishmen); and twenty-six pioneer full-time students registered for a three-year Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree programme. A five-year part-time LL.B, degree programme was introduced in January 1963. with thirty students but the programme was terminated in 2006.

The Faculty considers its role as that of providing sound University legal education in line with the UNESCO Advisory Commission’s Report which proposed the establishment of the University of Lagos. Although Lagos is no longer the political capital of Nigeria, it remains the commercial nerve centre and an ever expanding industrial metropolis. The following observation in the UNESCO Report remains very valid.

Lagos is the judicial, commercial and international centre of the Federation and holds the largest concentration of practitioners. It is also the most rapid developing industrial centre. Moreover, it is the centre of the Federal and constitutional development of law practice of the greatest significance for all members of profession in the future. Finally, its general cultural advantages and its specific professional opportunities for association with the members of the bench, the bar and the federal legal services, both public and private, are self-evident.

Since its inception, the Faculty has been going through experimental stages involving several changes in the curriculum. In particular, the changes have taken into consideration the growing need to teach law in the light of social, political and economic changes and the need to inculcate the idea of understanding law not for its own sake but with reference to its relevance to society, locally and internationally.

The Faculty was divided into four Departments on 1st October, 1977. They are: Department of Commercial and Industrial Law, Department of Jurisprudence and International Law, Department of Private and Property Law, and Department of Public Law.