Applicable statutes give Nigerian courts discretion to achieve fairness in marital property readjustment. Ironically, the courts’ approach has often been to adjudicate on the basis of formal title, resulting in a general failure to make any readjustments. This article offers two alternative explanations for this judicial behaviour: absence of a specific statutory marriage-centred definition of matrimonial property; and the courts’ failure to appreciate the implicit matrimonial property regime revealed by a perspicacious interpretation of the statutes. These factors lead the courts to exercise a title-finding jurisdiction instead of an adjustive one. This conservative approach results in the courts exercising an exclusionary prescription of property. These flaws ignore the socio-cultural underpinnings and environment of marriage that support patriarchy in Africa and generally “disable” women in relation to property rights. Sample court cases support this thesis and underscore the need for a statutory definition of matrimonial property, with marriage as its denominator.

中文翻译：

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离婚与婚姻资产：为什么公平和妇女在尼日利亚的财产调整行动中失败

适用的法规赋予尼日利亚法院自由裁量权，以实现婚姻财产调整的公平性。具有讽刺意味的是，法院的做法往往是根据正式所有权进行裁决，导致普遍未能做出任何调整。本文对这种司法行为提供了两种不同的解释：缺乏以婚姻为中心的特定婚姻财产定义；法院未能理解对法规的敏锐解释所揭示的隐含的婚姻财产制度。这些因素导致法院行使寻找所有权的管辖权而不是调整性的管辖权。这种保守的方法导致法院对财产行使排除性规定。这些缺陷忽视了支持非洲父权制的社会文化基础和婚姻环境，并在财产权方面普遍“剥夺”了妇女的权利。示例法院案例支持这一论点，并强调需要对婚姻财产进行法定定义，并以婚姻为分母。