Professor Stephen Kweku Asare, Legal Scholar and CDD-Ghana Fellow who writes under the moniker GOGO, has warned that Operation Recover All Loot cases are stalling as Ghana’s courts enter their annual long vacation, renewing his yearly call for the judiciary to rethink how it schedules judicial leave.
Professor Asare opened his commentary by noting that the courts’ annual closure occurs regardless of the volume of pending cases, including those connected to the government’s Operation Recover All Loot initiative.
“ORAL takes a long vacation! Not because there are no looting cases to hear. Not because the need to recover public loot has diminished. But because the courts are on long vacation. That annual reality prompts GOGO to make the same plea every year, Ghana should rethink the long judicial vacation,” .
CDD-Ghana Fellow and legal scholar, Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare
Not an Argument Against Judicial Rest
Professor Asare was careful to clarify that his concern does not extend to judges’ entitlement to rest, but rather to the practice of the entire court system slowing down simultaneously.
He noted that Ghana’s Court Rules provide for three vacation periods, including a long vacation running from August 1 to September 30 each year. Professor Asare traced the origins of the long vacation to Ghana’s colonial past, explaining that the practice emerged from the practical travel constraints faced by British judges serving in the colonies.
“That long vacation is a colonial inheritance. It emerged at a time when British judges serving in the colonies travelled by ship to England. The journey took weeks in each direction, making extended court closures a practical necessity”.
CDD-Ghana Fellow and legal scholar, Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare
He added that the timing of the vacation was deliberately aligned with the British summer season, allowing colonial judges to escape the tropical climate for an extended period at home.
Conditions That No Longer Apply
Professor Asare argued that the circumstances that originally justified the long vacation have long since disappeared, given that Ghana’s judiciary is now staffed by Ghanaian judges operating under vastly different conditions.
“The colonial courts also operated under a comparatively small and less complex caseload. There were fewer judges, fewer lawyers, fewer litigants, and a far narrower range of disputes than confront the courts today.
“Neither of those conditions exists any longer. We now have Ghanaian judges, and there is no compelling reason for them to vacation in England. Even if they wished to, modern air travel has reduced journeys that once took weeks to a matter of hours.”
CDD-Ghana Fellow and legal scholar, Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare
According to Professor Asare, the demands placed on Ghana’s courts have expanded significantly since the colonial era, covering a much wider range of legal matters than the system was originally designed to handle.
Today’s courts, according to the legal scholar, resolve constitutional disputes, complex commercial litigation, sophisticated financial crimes, land cases, family matters, election petitions, and an ever-growing criminal docket.
Yet Professor Asare wondered why the state continues to organize the courts around a calendar designed for the travel conditions and judicial workload of the 19th century.
The Cost of Delayed Justice
Professor Asare emphasised that every day a case remains unresolved carries real consequences for those awaiting judicial outcomes, spanning both individuals and the broader economy, with ORAL cases standing as a direct example of what is at stake.
“Investors await commercial certainty. Justice delayed is not merely a legal problem; it is an economic and social one,” he said. To illustrate his argument, Professor Asare compared the judiciary to other essential public services that maintain continuous operation despite staff needing periodic rest.
“The administration of justice is an essential public service. It is no less essential than healthcare, policing, or emergency medical services. We do not close hospitals because doctors deserve annual leave.
“We do not suspend policing because police officers are on vacation. We do not park ambulances because paramedics need time off. These institutions ensure continuity by staggering leave while maintaining uninterrupted service. The courts should do the same”.
CDD-Ghana Fellow and legal scholar, Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare
A Practical Solution Already in Use
Professor Asare proposed that the solution lies not in eliminating judicial leave entirely, but in restructuring how that leave is taken across the judiciary, pointing to the Supreme Court’s own operational structure as evidence that this approach is already achievable.
“With about 19 Justices sitting in panels of five, its work can readily be organized so that individual Justices take their annual leave on a rotational basis while the Court continues sitting throughout the year. The same principle can be adapted across the superior courts”.
CDD-Ghana Fellow and legal scholar, Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare
Professor Asare acknowledged that judicial vacations represent only one factor among several contributing to delays within Ghana’s court system, calling for a broader set of reforms alongside changes to the vacation calendar.
Justice as a Year-Round Public Service
Professor Asare closed his commentary with a direct call to reconsider the underlying assumptions shaping Ghana’s current judicial calendar, arguing that a system designed for colonial-era travel constraints has no place in the country’s modern legal system, one that must include time-sensitive cases like ORAL prosecutions.
“A two-month institutional shutdown rooted in the travel conditions and modest caseload of the colonial era should no longer define the rhythm of justice in 21st-century Ghana. Judges deserve vacations.
“Courts do not. Judges should continue to enjoy generous annual leave, but the courts should remain open throughout the year. Justice is too essential a public service to be seasonal”.
CDD-Ghana Fellow and legal scholar, Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare
Professor Asare’s commentary adds to a recurring conversation about judicial efficiency in Ghana, raising practical questions about how the country’s court system balances the legitimate need for judicial rest against the broader public interest in timely access to justice, particularly for high-profile cases like ORAL that carry both legal and economic weight.
With Operation Recover All Loot and numerous other pending cases affected by the annual court closure, his proposal for rotational leave scheduling offers a concrete model that mirrors practices already used in other essential public services, potentially setting the stage for renewed institutional debate on judicial administration reform in Ghana.
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