Professor Taslim Olawale Elias was the first African judge to be appointed president of the International Court of Justice in The Hague. He was a legal giant in Nigeria and the world, having been the longest-serving judge at the ICJ. He was a postgraduate student at the University of Hull in 1980 where he obtained a Doctor of Law degree.
Education
Born in 1914, in Lagos, Nigeria, Taslim Olawale Elias attended the Church Missionary Society Grammar School, and later joined Igbobi College. Elias then moved to the British capital and became a student at the University of London. In 1934 he earned a Cambridge School Certificate examination which secured him a job as an assistant in the Government Audit Department. In 1935 he joined the Nigerian Railway where he spent nine years working in the Chief Accountant's Office. During this period, Elias was an external student of the London University, where he successfully achieved the intermediate examinations for the B.A. and LL. B degrees. In 1944 he received his B.A. degree from University College London and within the following two years his LL.B. degree. In 1947, Elias achieved his LL.M degree in law, and in 1949, he earned a Ph.D. in law at London University.
Writing about Elias’ academic achievements in 1975, the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana wrote
One academic honour after another came easily to him and I may only single out the following: University of London Post-Graduate Scholarship, 1946-49; Yarborough-Anderson Scholarship to the Inner Temple, 1948-49; the Ph.D. (London), 1949; Simon Research Fellowship at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford, 1954-60; Research Fellowship at Nuffield College, Oxford, 1956; and the LL.D. (London), 1962.
In 1980, Elias attended the University of Hull as a postgraduate student where he honourably obtained a Doctor of Law.
Throughout his life Elias strove to expand his mind by becoming an expert in an array of different subjects. Judge Elias was “the holder of many honorary degrees, not only in Laws, but also in Letter and Science” from different universities around the UK and Nigeria (International Court of Justice, 1991).
Alongside his successful academic career Elias married Ganiyat Yetunde Fowosere and had five children, two daughters and three sons, one of whom is Professor Gbolanhan Elias SAN, a scholar and legal practitioner.
Career
The late Judge Taslim Olawale Elias… stood apart as a legal giant among other men. He was a former Attorney-General, Minister of Justice, and Chief Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Professor and Dean of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos; one-time President of the International Court of Justice, The Hague, and a judge at the Court until his death. He has been described as "the most learned lawyer in a century of lawyers." (Okeke, 1997: 352)
After receiving his law degree in 1949 at the University of London, Elias worked as a lawyer and as a research fellow at Manchester and Oxford University respectively. In 1957 he was employed as Governor of the Institute of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
Between 1960 and 1972, he was employed as Nigeria's Attorney General and became the first Nigerian to hold the post of Minister of justice (1960-1966) after Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960. From 1972 to 1975, Elias served his country as Chief Justice of the Nigerian Supreme Court. Summarising his career life, D. A. Bekoe claimed that:
Elias' fame quickly spread far and wide. No wonder then that he became Constitutional Adviser to the British West Indies, 1959; Somaliland, 1960; and Malawi, 1960. He was Chairman of the United Nations Constitutional and Legal Experts to draft a Constitution for the Congo (Leopoldville), 1961 and 1962.
Elias was Vice President of the ICJ between 1979 and 1982, before occupying the position of president between 1982 and 1983. He was a valued and respected jurist worldwide and a member of several African and United Nations legal bodies.
In 1991 the International Court of Justice announced that:
Judge Elias was a member of the international Court of Justice (1961-1975), General Rapporteur (1965-1966) and Chairman (1970) of the United Nations International Law Commission. He further participated, as a member of his country’s delegation, in many conferences and committees of the United Nations. He was also a member of the Expert Committee which drafted the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Charter (1963), Chairman of the Arbitration (1964) and Vice-President of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal (1980-1981).
Alongside these distinguished posts, Elias was a Scholar of the Inner Temple (1946–9). , a Professor, Emeritus and a pioneer in many fields. He taught law at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, where he was a Professor and Dean of the faculty of law. In 1956, he was a visiting Professor of Political Science at the University of Delhi, a Governor of the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University in 1957 and in 1961, he was conferred Queen’s Counsel.
The International court of Justice (1991) contended that:
During the whole of his distinguished career judge Elias took an active part in academic life in Nigeria, Africa, as well as in other parts of the world. He had been a professor of Lagos University, President of the Nigerian society of International law, president of the African Society of International and Comparative Law and of the African Association of International Law. He further was a member of the institute of International law, president of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Committee and Honorary member of the American Society of International Law. He also lectured at The Hague Academy of International Law, of whose curatorium he had been a member since 1975. He was the author of numerous books and articles on Nigerian Law, African Law and International Law.
Legacy
On 14 August 1991, Nigeria lost one of his most eminent and internationally acclaimed Jurists, a scholar plenipotentiary and a Professor Emeritus, Taslim Olawale Elias. Speaking about his death, Chief Justice of Nigeria, Honourable Justice Ligali Ayorinde said: ‘Nigeria has lost an international figure, an intellectual of the first order’.
Elias left a long and lasting legacy including his many publication which are listed below.
1. Nigerian Land Law and Custom 1951
2. Groundwork of Nigerian Law 1954
3. Nature of African Customary Law 1956
4. Government and Politics in Africa 1961
5. Nigeria: Development of its Laws and Constitution 1967
6. Africa and the Development of International Law 1972
7. The Modern Law of Treaties 1974
In fact, his publications established a tradition which concentrated on international legal scholarship, legal customs and modern judiciary systems. On that matter, Gathii (2008) suggests that from that vantage point, one of the most significant insights of Elias’s scholarship is its argument in favour of inter-civilizational participation in the process of crafting genuinely universal norms. Therefore, Elias rewrote the history of international law to correct the historical myth and position of Africans created by Western states.
References
Bionerds. (2015) Taslim Olawale Elias. Available Online: https://bionerdsng.com/2015/05/12/taslim-olawale-elias/ [Accessed 08/11/2016]
Gathii, J. T. (2008). A Critical Appraisal of the International Legal Tradition of Taslim Olawale Elias. Leiden Journal of International Law, p. 317-349. United Kindom. Available Online: file://data.adir.hull.ac.uk/home4/481/481009/SSRN-id1625007.pdf [Accessed 08/11/2016]
International Court of Justice. (1982). Available online: http://www.icj-cij.org/presscom/files/1/9811.pdf?PHPSESSID=5c407 [Accessed 08/11/2016]
International Court of Justice. (1991). Available Online: http://www.icj-cij.org/presscom/files/7/10227.pdf [Accessed 08/11/2016]
International Court of Justice. (1991). Available Online: http://www.icj-cij.org/presscom/files/3/10183.pdf?PHPSESSID=bc17bfee4de76f2708b184a93079d900 [accessed 08/11/2016]
Okeke, C. N. (1997). International Law in the Nigerian Legal System. Golden Gate University School of Law GGU Law Digital Commons. Available Online: http://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=pubs [Accessed 08/11/2016]
Onyango, P. (2014). African Customary Law: An Introduction. LawAfrica Publishing Ltd. Available Online: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Yp2yAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA193&lpg=PA193&dq=Taslim+Olawale+Elias+LAWYER&source=bl&ots=6xUGkUPg3N&sig=xzQzJL8UwHtLsA5fjs2K_ERNaMw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi30M6JoJnQAhVMJMAKHUuQBXU4ChDoAQgtMAQ#v=onepage&q=Taslim%20Olawale%20Elias%20LAWYER&f=false [accessed 08/11/2016]
Terris, D., Romano, C. P. R. & Swigart, L. (2007). The International Judge: An Introduction to the Men and Women Who Decide the World's Cases. UPNE. Available Online: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qViXyy_58LsC&pg=PA292&lpg=PA292&dq=Taslim+Olawale+Elias+AS+A+LAWYER&source=bl&ots=MuiTVUsJUL&sig=_zMZmNK-NIQQtQME_LSqycksEas&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjxg_vvoJnQAhVBIMAKHfr1CXY4FBDoAQg6MAk#v=onepage&q=Taslim%20Olawale%20Elias%20AS%20A%20LAWYER&f=false [Accessed 08/11/2016]
The Judicial Process in Commonwealth Africa: to Elias Form Early Chief Justice of Nigeria. (1977). Singapore: PEP International Ltd. Available online: https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/123456789/9687/T%20O%20Elias-The%20judicial%20process.pdf?sequence=1 [Accessed 08/11/2016]
The New York Times. (1991). Taslim O. Elias, 76, Is Dead in Nigeria; Headed World Court. Available online: http://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/16/obituaries/taslim-o-elias-76-is-dead-in-nigeria-headed-world-court.html [Accessed 08/11/2016]
Turack, D. (1995) Essays in Honour of Judge Taslim Olawale Elias Volume I: Contemporary International Law and Human Rights. Vol. II: African Law and Comparative Public Law, 27 Case W. Res. J. Int'l L. 195. Available Online : http://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil/vol27/iss1/12 & https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0008197300095337 [Accessed 08/11/2016]
Webby. (2001) Taslim Olawale Elias. Available Online: http://www.onlinenigeria.com/people/ad.asp?blurb=40 [Accessed 08/11/2016]
Back to: Hull Alumni Index Page
Born in 1914, in Lagos, Nigeria, Taslim Olawale Elias attended the Church Missionary Society Grammar School, and later joined Igbobi College. Elias then moved to the British capital and became a student at the University of London. In 1934 he earned a Cambridge School Certificate examination which secured him a job as an assistant in the Government Audit Department. In 1935 he joined the Nigerian Railway where he spent nine years working in the Chief Accountant's Office. During this period, Elias was an external student of the London University, where he successfully achieved the intermediate examinations for the B.A. and LL. B degrees. In 1944 he received his B.A. degree from University College London and within the following two years his LL.B. degree. In 1947, Elias achieved his LL.M degree in law, and in 1949, he earned a Ph.D. in law at London University.
Writing about Elias’ academic achievements in 1975, the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana wrote
One academic honour after another came easily to him and I may only single out the following: University of London Post-Graduate Scholarship, 1946-49; Yarborough-Anderson Scholarship to the Inner Temple, 1948-49; the Ph.D. (London), 1949; Simon Research Fellowship at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford, 1954-60; Research Fellowship at Nuffield College, Oxford, 1956; and the LL.D. (London), 1962.
In 1980, Elias attended the University of Hull as a postgraduate student where he honourably obtained a Doctor of Law.
Throughout his life Elias strove to expand his mind by becoming an expert in an array of different subjects. Judge Elias was “the holder of many honorary degrees, not only in Laws, but also in Letter and Science” from different universities around the UK and Nigeria (International Court of Justice, 1991).
Alongside his successful academic career Elias married Ganiyat Yetunde Fowosere and had five children, two daughters and three sons, one of whom is Professor Gbolanhan Elias SAN, a scholar and legal practitioner.
Career
The late Judge Taslim Olawale Elias… stood apart as a legal giant among other men. He was a former Attorney-General, Minister of Justice, and Chief Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Professor and Dean of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos; one-time President of the International Court of Justice, The Hague, and a judge at the Court until his death. He has been described as "the most learned lawyer in a century of lawyers." (Okeke, 1997: 352)
After receiving his law degree in 1949 at the University of London, Elias worked as a lawyer and as a research fellow at Manchester and Oxford University respectively. In 1957 he was employed as Governor of the Institute of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
Between 1960 and 1972, he was employed as Nigeria's Attorney General and became the first Nigerian to hold the post of Minister of justice (1960-1966) after Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960. From 1972 to 1975, Elias served his country as Chief Justice of the Nigerian Supreme Court. Summarising his career life, D. A. Bekoe claimed that:
Elias' fame quickly spread far and wide. No wonder then that he became Constitutional Adviser to the British West Indies, 1959; Somaliland, 1960; and Malawi, 1960. He was Chairman of the United Nations Constitutional and Legal Experts to draft a Constitution for the Congo (Leopoldville), 1961 and 1962.
Elias was Vice President of the ICJ between 1979 and 1982, before occupying the position of president between 1982 and 1983. He was a valued and respected jurist worldwide and a member of several African and United Nations legal bodies.
In 1991 the International Court of Justice announced that:
Judge Elias was a member of the international Court of Justice (1961-1975), General Rapporteur (1965-1966) and Chairman (1970) of the United Nations International Law Commission. He further participated, as a member of his country’s delegation, in many conferences and committees of the United Nations. He was also a member of the Expert Committee which drafted the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Charter (1963), Chairman of the Arbitration (1964) and Vice-President of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal (1980-1981).
Alongside these distinguished posts, Elias was a Scholar of the Inner Temple (1946–9). , a Professor, Emeritus and a pioneer in many fields. He taught law at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, where he was a Professor and Dean of the faculty of law. In 1956, he was a visiting Professor of Political Science at the University of Delhi, a Governor of the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University in 1957 and in 1961, he was conferred Queen’s Counsel.
The International court of Justice (1991) contended that:
During the whole of his distinguished career judge Elias took an active part in academic life in Nigeria, Africa, as well as in other parts of the world. He had been a professor of Lagos University, President of the Nigerian society of International law, president of the African Society of International and Comparative Law and of the African Association of International Law. He further was a member of the institute of International law, president of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Committee and Honorary member of the American Society of International Law. He also lectured at The Hague Academy of International Law, of whose curatorium he had been a member since 1975. He was the author of numerous books and articles on Nigerian Law, African Law and International Law.
Legacy
On 14 August 1991, Nigeria lost one of his most eminent and internationally acclaimed Jurists, a scholar plenipotentiary and a Professor Emeritus, Taslim Olawale Elias. Speaking about his death, Chief Justice of Nigeria, Honourable Justice Ligali Ayorinde said: ‘Nigeria has lost an international figure, an intellectual of the first order’.
Elias left a long and lasting legacy including his many publication which are listed below.
1. Nigerian Land Law and Custom 1951
2. Groundwork of Nigerian Law 1954
3. Nature of African Customary Law 1956
4. Government and Politics in Africa 1961
5. Nigeria: Development of its Laws and Constitution 1967
6. Africa and the Development of International Law 1972
7. The Modern Law of Treaties 1974
In fact, his publications established a tradition which concentrated on international legal scholarship, legal customs and modern judiciary systems. On that matter, Gathii (2008) suggests that from that vantage point, one of the most significant insights of Elias’s scholarship is its argument in favour of inter-civilizational participation in the process of crafting genuinely universal norms. Therefore, Elias rewrote the history of international law to correct the historical myth and position of Africans created by Western states.
References
Bionerds. (2015) Taslim Olawale Elias. Available Online: https://bionerdsng.com/2015/05/12/taslim-olawale-elias/ [Accessed 08/11/2016]
Gathii, J. T. (2008). A Critical Appraisal of the International Legal Tradition of Taslim Olawale Elias. Leiden Journal of International Law, p. 317-349. United Kindom. Available Online: file://data.adir.hull.ac.uk/home4/481/481009/SSRN-id1625007.pdf [Accessed 08/11/2016]
International Court of Justice. (1982). Available online: http://www.icj-cij.org/presscom/files/1/9811.pdf?PHPSESSID=5c407 [Accessed 08/11/2016]
International Court of Justice. (1991). Available Online: http://www.icj-cij.org/presscom/files/7/10227.pdf [Accessed 08/11/2016]
International Court of Justice. (1991). Available Online: http://www.icj-cij.org/presscom/files/3/10183.pdf?PHPSESSID=bc17bfee4de76f2708b184a93079d900 [accessed 08/11/2016]
Okeke, C. N. (1997). International Law in the Nigerian Legal System. Golden Gate University School of Law GGU Law Digital Commons. Available Online: http://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=pubs [Accessed 08/11/2016]
Onyango, P. (2014). African Customary Law: An Introduction. LawAfrica Publishing Ltd. Available Online: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Yp2yAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA193&lpg=PA193&dq=Taslim+Olawale+Elias+LAWYER&source=bl&ots=6xUGkUPg3N&sig=xzQzJL8UwHtLsA5fjs2K_ERNaMw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi30M6JoJnQAhVMJMAKHUuQBXU4ChDoAQgtMAQ#v=onepage&q=Taslim%20Olawale%20Elias%20LAWYER&f=false [accessed 08/11/2016]
Terris, D., Romano, C. P. R. & Swigart, L. (2007). The International Judge: An Introduction to the Men and Women Who Decide the World's Cases. UPNE. Available Online: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qViXyy_58LsC&pg=PA292&lpg=PA292&dq=Taslim+Olawale+Elias+AS+A+LAWYER&source=bl&ots=MuiTVUsJUL&sig=_zMZmNK-NIQQtQME_LSqycksEas&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjxg_vvoJnQAhVBIMAKHfr1CXY4FBDoAQg6MAk#v=onepage&q=Taslim%20Olawale%20Elias%20AS%20A%20LAWYER&f=false [Accessed 08/11/2016]
The Judicial Process in Commonwealth Africa: to Elias Form Early Chief Justice of Nigeria. (1977). Singapore: PEP International Ltd. Available online: https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/123456789/9687/T%20O%20Elias-The%20judicial%20process.pdf?sequence=1 [Accessed 08/11/2016]
The New York Times. (1991). Taslim O. Elias, 76, Is Dead in Nigeria; Headed World Court. Available online: http://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/16/obituaries/taslim-o-elias-76-is-dead-in-nigeria-headed-world-court.html [Accessed 08/11/2016]
Turack, D. (1995) Essays in Honour of Judge Taslim Olawale Elias Volume I: Contemporary International Law and Human Rights. Vol. II: African Law and Comparative Public Law, 27 Case W. Res. J. Int'l L. 195. Available Online : http://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil/vol27/iss1/12 & https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0008197300095337 [Accessed 08/11/2016]
Webby. (2001) Taslim Olawale Elias. Available Online: http://www.onlinenigeria.com/people/ad.asp?blurb=40 [Accessed 08/11/2016]
Back to: Hull Alumni Index Page