Land Ownership and Inheritance Rights under Common Law and Islamic Law: A Comparative Analysis

In every society, land remains a topical and paramount value, due to its uncommon usages for agricultural purposes, industrialisation, infrastructure, residential usages, for social, economic and political powers as obtainable across different societies. Land disputes relating to ownership and inheritance constantly generates and degenerates legal controversies especially in plural legal systems, where, pari-passu, common law and Islamic law and customary law exist as it is in Nigerian society. It is therefore imperative that the objective of this paper is to analyse and compare the principles governing land ownership and inheritance rights under common law and Islamic law, with a particular emphasis on the areas of convergence and divergence, as it explains the conceptual foundations of property ownership, testamentary succession, rights of women’s inheritance and legal actions regarding inheritance disputes. Doctrinal and comparative legal methods were used as it evaluates documented statutory provisions, judicial verdicts, juristic scholarly opinions, and the primary sources of Islamic law: Qur'an and Ahadith that are very relevant to land inheritance. The research found out that common law is emphatically on individual's autonomy and testamentary freedom, Islamic law, on the other hand, advocates on divinely revealed Quranic injunctions on distribution of estate, targeting equality, justice, family protection against future rancour. The paper conclusively agitates for integration coalescence between both systems of law for effective land administration, peaceful land dispute resolution in a multi-legal societies and justification in the legal system. Recommendations: The paper makes some plausible suggestions such as: public awareness campaign, seminars on legal reform, integration of judicial system, among others.