LLB (Hons) University of Jos, Nigeria
LLM University of Nigeria
PhD UCT

Bio

Following the completion of an LLB (Hons) at the University of Jos, Nigeria in 1989, admission to the Nigerian bar in 1990, and national youth service in 1991, Ada practised in the law office of Dr JO Ibik (Senior Advocate of Nigeria) in Enugu, Nigeria from 1992 to 1995. Ada then explored the appeal of the nonprofit sector, working as a Programme Officer from 1996 to 2000, in two nonprofits, one of them a civil society organisation, African Centre for Democratic Governance, during which time she earned an LLM from the University of Nigeria. In 2001, she was appointed to a teaching position at the Nigerian Law School, Enugu Campus, acting as Head, Department of Legal Drafting and Conveyancing from 2001 to 2003. She completed a PhD at UCT in 2006 on the research topic The role of law in the development of the nonprofit sector in Nigeria and South Africa, and in 2007 Ada took up a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Institute of Development and Labour Law, UCT.  

Ada has held visiting fellowships at the African Gender Institute, UCT in 2000 and the Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies, Center for Civil Society Studies in 2003 and is a 2009 international fellowship alumna of the American Association of University Women (AAUW). In 2011, she was appointed Director of then newly established Centre for Comparative Law in Africa (CCLA) and is the convener of the Comparative Business Law in Africa LLM programme and the editor of the Journal of Comparative Law in Africa. Ada has published on various aspects of law and development, including the nonprofit sector, and is particularly interested in the shaping of the law to support supplemental, complementary and alternative development pathways in Africa.

Teaching

Law, Regional Integration and Development in Africa (LLM)

Comparative Law and Business in Africa (LLM)

Law and Regional Integration in Africa (LLB)

Previously taught Common Law at UCT and Legal Drafting and Conveyancing (renamed Property Law Practice) as well as Legal Skills at the Nigerian Law School, Enugu Campus.

Publications

Books and Edited Volumes

Ada Ordor and Faizel Ismail (Guest Editors) Law and Development Review 2018 Special Conference Issue.

Yinka Omorogbe and Ada Ordor (Eds) Ending Africa’s Energy Deficit and the Law: Achieving Sustainable Energy for All in Africa (Oxford University Press, 2018).

Sourcebook on Drafting, Property Law and Practice in Nigeria (Enugu, Nigeria: Snaap Publishers, 2011) with Francis Oniekoro.

Book Chapters

“Local Content Requirements and Social Inclusion in Global Energy Markets: Towards Business and Human Rights Content in Africa” with Oyeniyi Abe in Damilola S Olawuyi (Ed), Local Content and Sustainable Development in Global Energy Markets (Cambridge University Press, 2021) 

“Engaging with Qualifying Principles in Nigerian Contract Law”, with Ngozi Odiaka in Luca Siliquini-Cinelli and Andrew Hutchison (Eds), More Constitutional Dimensions of Contract Law (Springer, 2019, pp 111-128).

“Achieving Effective Law and Policy Frameworks for Access to Sustainable Energy in Africa – A Multidimensional Effort” with Yinka Omorogbe, Chapter 17 of Yinka Omorogbe and Ada Ordor (Eds) Ending Africa’s Energy Deficit and the Law: Achieving Sustainable Energy for All in Africa (Oxford University Press, 2018).

“Applying the Tool of Comparative Law to the Study of Africa’s Multiple Development Pathways” Chapter 6 of Salvatore Mancuso and Charles Fombad (eds) Comparative Law in Africa: Methodologies and Concepts (Cape Town: Juta and Company, 2015).

“Exploring Civil Society Partnerships in Enforcing Decent Work in South Africa” Chapter 9 of Deirdre McCann, Sangheon Lee, Patrick Belser, Colin Fenwick, John Howe and Malte Luebker (eds) Creative Labour Regulation: Indeterminacy and Protection in an Uncertain World (Basingstoke/Geneva: Palgrave Macmillan/ILO, 2014).

‘Associational Life and Women’s Constitutional Rights in Africa’ Chapter 8 of Stefanie Rohrs and Dee Smythe et al (eds) In Search of Equality: Women, Law and Society in Africa (Cape Town: UCT Press, 2014).

“The Rule of Law and Socio-Political Dynamics in Africa” Chapter 4 of Zeleza and McConnaughay (eds) Human Rights and The Rule of Law in Africa (Pittsburgh: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).

Book Review and Encyclopaedia Entries

“Civil Society” in the Encyclopaedia of Law and Development (Edited by Koen De Feyter, Gamze Erdem Turkelli and Stephanie de Moerloose), (Edward Elgar, 2021).

Book Review of: Commercial Litigation in Anglophone Africa – The Law Relating to Civil Jurisdiction, Enforcement of Foreign Judgments and Interim Remedies. By Andrew J Moran, QC & Anthony J Kennedy Juta, 2018 published in South African Law Journal (2019)   4 SALJ (or Vol 136 No. 4 December 2019).

“Labour Law and Trade Union Law in Developing Countries” short commentary in Peter Cane and Joanne Conaghan (eds.) The New Oxford Companion to Law (Oxford University Press, 2008) with Evance Kalula.

Articles

“Advancing the Role of Regional Courts for Regional Integration in Africa: A Study of the East African Court of Justice and the ECOWAS Court of Justice” in The African Review, Vol. 45 No. 2 (Special Issue) December 2018:63-81 (Published in April 2020 as a 2018 back issue).

“An Evaluation of the Regulatory Framework for Environmental Management in the Nigerian Petroleum Industry” in Journal of Comparative Law in Africa Vol. 6 No. 2, 2019 pp 32-55 (with Opeyemi Omotuyi).

“Addressing Human Rights Concerns in the Extractive Resource Industry in Sub-Saharan Africa using the Lens of Article 46 (C) of the Malabo Protocol” with Oyeniyi Abe in Law and Development Review 2018 Special Conference Issue

“Integrating the Traditional with the Contemporary in Dispute Resolution in Africa” in Law Democracy and Development (Journal of the Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape) vol 20, 2016 pp154 – 173, with Adenike Aiyedun.

 “Tracking the Law and Development Continuum through Multiple Intersections” in Law and Development Review Vol 8, Issue 2, 2015.     

“The Nonprofit Sector in the Context of Law in Development in Africa” Journal of African Law vol. 58 issue 1, 2014 pp 45-70; doi: 10.1017/S0021855313000156.

“Refashioning the Finishing School of Legal Education in Nigeria” Chapter 2 of GC Nnona (ed) Law Security and Development Anniversary Commemorative Essays of the University of Nigeria Faculty of Law (Enugu: Snaap Press, 2013) with Francis Oniekoro.

“Accessing Justice within Plural Normative Systems in Africa: Case Study of South Africa” African Journal of Clinical Legal Education and Access to Justice, vol. 1 Oct 2012 pp 49-72 with Adenike Aiyedun.

“The South African Nonprofit Sector: Legal and Policy Environment” in Speculum Juris 2010(1).

Labour Law Reforms that support Decent Work: The Case of Southern Africa (Harare: ILO Sub-regional Office for Southern Africa, Issues Paper No. 28, 2008. with Evance Kalula and Colin Fenwick.

“Constructing a Clinical Legal Education Approach for Large Multicultural Classes: Insights from the Nigerian Law School” International Journal of Clinical Legal Education July 2007 (2007).

“Giving Statutory Effect To Legislative Intention: A Study of Social Security Legislation in Nigeria” Nigerian Bar Journal vol 2 No.2 April 2004.

“Human Resources in Nigeria’s Nonprofit Sector” in Fellows Journal Spring 2004, vol. 3 (Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies, Center for Civil Society Studies). 

“Gender, Citizenship and Customary Law from Colonial to Commonwealth Africa” (Gender and Women Studies Africa) 2003.

“Statutory Protection of Women in the Informal Labour Sector in Nigeria” in Nigerian Bar Journal, August 2001.

“Sharing the Citizenship of Women: A Comparative Gendered Analysis of the Concept of Legal Personhood” in Elaine Salo & Helen Moffett (eds.) Associates' Publication 2000 (University of Cape Town: African Gender Institute, 2000).