This book, Judicial Approach to Interpretation of Constitution: a study
of Nigeria, Australia, Canada and India, is the outcome of a doctoral
study of the judicial interpretation of the constitutions in selected
Commonwealth jurisdictions, and a survey of the theories of
constitutional interpretation and adjudication, the rules applied by the
courts in the interpretation of the provisions of the constitutions, and
determined the extent to which the existing approaches to the
interpretation of the constitution have hindered the development of
constitutional jurisprudence in those countries. In all, the statutes
and constitutions are expressed in English language and some words are
prone to distortions, thereby requiring the need for the courts to
discover the intention of the legislators when interpreting such
statutes and constitutions. It is further observed that the theories and
rules of interpretation currently adopted by the courts are conflicting,
and this is partly due to vagueness and also that in many cases, where a
rule appears to support a particular interpretation, there is another
rule, often of equal status, which can be invoked in favour of an
interpretation which could lead to different result. The general
conclusion is that the existing approaches to constitutional
interpretation are somewhat inefficient and inadequate to enable the
courts to effectively discover the intention of the legislators, and
therefore the courts should be allowed to examine all relevant
parliamentary documents and debates.
