The subject of my paper is ‘Liability under the Nigeria Criminal Code’.

The words which follow—‘A Historical and Comparative Study’— are almost otiose, for it seems to me that the subject could hardly be dealt with in any other way.

Perhaps I should say at die outset that I am only concerned with the Criminal Code which applies in Lagos and in the Western and Eastern Regions of Nigeria. The Northern Region has recently introduced its own Penal Code, of an entirely different nature, and one more suited, in my belief at all events, to a community which is predominantly Muslim.