THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK GOVERNING INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE: NIGERIA AS A CASE STUDY

Abstract

This article provides a doctrinal appraisal of the legal framework governing the interface between international human rights norms and international trade within Nigeria. Governed by a dualist constitutional framework, Nigeria processes transnational standards through Section 12(1) of the 1999 Constitution, making the National Assembly the exclusive gatekeeper for treaty domestication, a mechanism exemplified by the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act. This article examines the structural tension produced by the constitutional bifurcation of rights, wherein economic and trade-essential liberties are relegated to non-justiciable directive principles under Chapter II, while civil liberties remain strictly justiciable under Chapter IV. Analysing landmark judicial interventions from Federal Republic of Nigeria v Anache to Kogi State Government v Attorney-General of the Federation, the article traces the evolution of the "national plague" doctrine used to enforce unified regulatory standards across sub-national units. It further interrogates how statutory instruments including the legacy Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA), the modern Nigeria Customs Service Act, the SON Act, the NAFDAC Act, the Immigration Act 2015, and the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) Act 1995, balance market liberalization and foreign direct investment with public health, safety, and consumer rights. The article concludes with targeted recommendations advocating for mandatory pre-ratification human rights impact assessments and the strategic harmonization of constitutional protections to secure the legal certainty demanded by contemporary commerce, the Revised Treaty of the Economic Community of West African States 1993, and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).