AN ANALYSIS OF PROTECTION OF THE RIGHT TO OWN PROPERTY: INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL LAW PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

The paper analysed the protection of the right to own property in the perspective of the
international law and the national law. Section 43 of the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) provides for the rights to property, which is the
foremost body of human rights regulating the acquisition of property in Nigeria. The
constitution set out the extent of these rights and the limits of its enforcement as well as the
powers of the State to acquire properties in public interest, beyond what is provided under
the Nigerian Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human and Peoples Rights which
no doubt remains the umbrella instruments that provided for the human rights of the people,
the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights as well as other rights instruments
further provides for elaborate enforcement of these rights. In this paper, the position of the
Universal Declaration of Human and Peoples Rights as well as the African Charter on
Human and Peoples’ Rights have been well discussed and extrapolated on the contrary with
the constitutional provisions. It is found that, the law is united both at the level of statutes
and judicial decisions as well as customary law to the effect that the human rights to own
properties is both universal and constitutional, valid, thus needs the protections of the law
as provided in the various human rights instruments. The paper gave some concluding
remarks.