Attorney General, Godfred Dame, has disclosed that the products of the country’s legal education compare favourably with the very best around the world.
According to him, law has been responsible for shaping the “development path of our nation” and has been deployed to direct its socio-economic and political course.
Speaking on the theme: ‘The future of legal education in Africa’, at an ongoing event at the University of Ghana law faculty, Mr Dame revealed that the future of legal education in Africa is crucial to the sustenance of the country’s growth.
“Evidently, the product of Ghana’s legal education since independence compares favourably with the very best around the world. Conversely, a contention that Ghana’s legal education or law profession has served the nation poorly will clearly be… at best a gross exaggeration”.
Mr Godfred Dame
Mr Dame insisted that despite such an achievement, it is safe to state that the system of professional legal education is “bedevilled” with severe challenges. These challenges, he revealed are arising out of the recent proliferation of “law faculties and schools” running the bachelor of laws program without a corresponding increase in facilities in the professional law course.
The Attorney General underscored that lowering of standards for the admission of students and “substandard performances” remain true among the challenges encountered in the legal space.
“We have come far in the delivery of education in Ghana since 1958. A very honest examination of the fact will disclose the system itself has over the decades, in a bid to live up to the circumstance of changing times [has] undergone a lot of revolution and reform. It has not been static as some may want to believe. I hasten to add the reform and revolution experienced in the system over the years has not been sufficient for the simple reason that there has not been the necessary legislative backing”.
Mr Godfred Dame
Law, a very powerful profession
Recounting the history of law in Ghana, Mr Dame intimated that the independence of Ghana was written in law through the passage of the Ghana independence act which received royal assent on 7th February 1957. Following this, he indicated that law continues to shape the policies and visions of successive governments, dreams and aspirations of the people since independence.
“Every new administration has been ushered in by law even the military regimes that abrogate the constitution have been quick to put in place… military decrees to legitimise their reigns as well as to formally abrogate the old constitutions”.
Mr Godfred Dame
Touching on the relevance of law, he explained that the importance of a profession is assessed by its contribution to social progress and advancement. Thus, there is no doubt that law is a very powerful profession on which the safety development and prosperity rest.
In this regard, he revealed that it is “irrefutable” that the quality of a country’s legal education determines the quality of the legal profession. The foundations of the legal education, the Attorney General emphasized were laid in 1958 with the establishment of the Ghana School of Law. He lamented that the school is largely located in the currently “exhausted and over-stretched facilities” in the heart of the business district of Accra, popularly known as Makola.
That notwithstanding, he noted that the school has produced virtually all of the nation’s legal “resources” required for Ghana socio-economic and political development and they include Presidents, Attorney Generals, Speakers of parliament and parliamentarians.
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