Judges play a very vital and important role in the development and implementation of corporate governance principles and practices by imposing obligations on the corporate entities through case laws, most of which are pronouncements on provisions of the relevant laws that regulate corporate bodies. These laws have to a large extent impacted positively on corporate governance practices and have become reference points in areas of guidelines, structures, and processes on how companies should be organized and managed for effective performance. In some instance, the pronouncements of courts have resulted in the enactment of Codes of Corporate Governance.

Although judges are not into lawmaking, when they adjudicate and make pronouncements on cases, their decisions become law which in turn becomes precedents that bind Judges in future similar cases under the doctrine of stare decisis. It therefore follows that Judges do more than just apply law as it is. They sometimes and at other times create new laws that remain binding on all until reversed or overruled by Courts that are higher in the hierarchy of courts and competent to do so.”

The main crux of this paper is a discourse on corporate governance principles and practices and an appraisal of the role of the Courts/Judges in ensuring a healthy management of the corporate organizations through judicial decisions with particular emphasis on Nigeria legal system.