Henry Akuchie

Legal reasoning is part of the judicial process that revolves around what judges and courts do in deciding or adjudicating cases. The judicial process traditionally recognizes four major themes namely: legal reasoning, judicial discretion, precedent and statutory interpretation. This article focuses on legal reasoning. A judge makes a judgment about human affairs. There is a claim that he reasons about it and not many are prepared to accept such a claim; hence the interrogation: does reason actually play a role in human affairs? Opinions are divided between those who think that reason plays a role in human affairs and those who berate the role of reason and extol that of sentiment. Keywords: Logic, Argumentation, Inductive, Persuasion, Inference, Morality and Intellect. DOI : 10.7176/JLPG/87-08 Publication date :July 31 st 2019

The improvements made in the procedural law in Nigeria, on issues of evidence, corroboration, compensation of victims, protection of victims and witnesses are x-rayed and appreciated in this paper. The laws of procedure admiringly considered in this paper are the Evidence Act 2011 (as amended) and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015. This paper also takes a look at how the improvements made in such Nigerian substantive and procedural legislations as the Child’s Rights Act, 2003, the Violence Against Persons Act, 2015, Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition), Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015, align with the Rules of Procedure and Evidence with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (the ICTY) and the Rules of Procedure and Evidence with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) as they relate to sexual assault. Key w ords: Mens Rea, Actus Reus, Defilement, Prosecutrix, Corroboration, Penetration DOI : 10.7176/JLPG/87-11 Publication...