This book attempts to set out Yoruba law and administration of justice in the pre-colonial era. With illuminating details, instances and examples, the author demonstrates how owe, asa, ase, ofin, maxims and precedents were used in Yorubaland to settle disputes between two people or groups. The book further establishes that Yoruba life was permeated with religion and religious belief without which the Yoruba could not have built and maintained their stable pattern of law and order. This quality ensured speedy and inexpensive administration of justice and the promptness with which the laws were enforced to produce law abiding and orderly people.

The book educates the reader that the administration of justice in Yorubaland is open, fair and on the whole, impartial. It is straightforward and it puts premium on clarity, without ambiguity or technicality. The book is aimed at the Yoruba and African youth. It is to inform or remind them of their heritage and culture, wisdom and philosophy of their ancestors.
Lawyers, folklorists, sociologists and anthropologists will find it extremely useful.

Folarin Shyllon was Dean Faculty of Law University of Ibadan, and also at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State. He is the author of Intellectual Property Law in Nigeria (C.H. Beck, Munich, Germany, 2003), International Encyclopaedia of Laws for Intellectual Property Law: Nigeria, (Kluwer Law Online, 2016) and Cultural Heritage Law and Management in Africa (Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization, Lagos, 2013). He is on the editorial board of International Journal of Cultural Property and Art Antiquity and Law He has held fellowships at, among others, Harvard University, International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), Rome; and Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property Law, Munich, Germany. He read Law at King’s College London.