Labour law in Australia and Nigeria: a comparative study in the sociology of legislation

Abstract

This thesis attempts a comparative sociology of the labour law in Australia and Nigeria. It finds that there are fundamental similarities between the compulsory arbitration laws of both countries which cannot be adequately explained, simply, in terms of race, geography or stages of industrial development. The thesis outlines in considerable details two broad sociological perspectives on law, the autonomy model and the social product model, and uses the insights of these two approaches to explain the observed similarities. The thesis shows that the 1904 Australian law was transplanted to Nigeria in the period 1968-76. Further, it shows that although at first sight Australia in 1904 is very different from Nigeria in 1968, the respective social circumstances (particularly the social control traditions) were remarkably similar, thus allowing the borrowing of the Australian legislation by Nigeria. The few differences which the thesis identifies suggest that the borrowing was not a case of blind legal transplantation. Show more