The MP for Tema Central, Yves Hanson-Nortey, has proposed that the Ghana School of Law outsource the professional training of law students in the country.
The MP said the suggestion will help deal with the perennial problem of lack of infrastructure and make legal education more accessible.
His comments came after 499 students were denied admission into the Ghana School of Law after attaining the 50% mark in the entrance exams.
Adopt UK model
Speaking on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Wednesday (10 November), Hanson-Nortey said the Ghana School of Law can adopt the UK model of outsourcing professional law training to other institutions.
“So, the Ghana School of Law can still have that position like an Inns of Court, like Lincoln’s Inn, and then outsource the teaching and learning space to third-party institutions,” he said.
“In the UK they have BPP [Holdings] – in fact, about 17 or 18 of them. Some of them are just specialised in legal education, like the University of Wales. I don’t see why we cannot do that.
“I know that it is a profession that people try to guard, especially the standards, making sure that people are well trained so that we get the best out of them,” he said.
Minority files motion to remove Attorney General
Meanwhile, the Minority in Parliament has filed a motion seeking the removal from office of the Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, following his failure to act on the House’s resolution to the General Legal Council (GLC) to admit the aggrieved 499 law students.
The resolution, passed last week with bipartisan support after the deputy Majority leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, and the deputy Minority leader, James Avedzi, made a case for it, placed a compulsion on the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to see to it that the GLC enforces the resolution.
However, in response, Dame told Parliament it does not have the power to direct him to make sure that the General Legal Council and the Ghana School of Law admit 499 LLB students who achieved the 50% pass mark.
No locus
“We do not want to get to contempt of Parliament issues. Whilst recognising the general legislative powers of Parliament in Ghana, except as have been circumscribed by the constitution, I am constrained to advise that Parliament is devoid of a power, through the use of parliamentary resolutions, to control the process of admission into the Ghana School of Law,”said the Attorney General in his response.
“The mode of exercising legislative power enshrined in Article 106 of the constitution does not admit of resolutions. In accordance with Section 13(1)(e) and (f) of the Legal Profession Act 1960 (Act 32), the power to regulate admission of students to pursue courses of instruction leading to qualification as lawyers and to hold examinations which may include preliminary, intermediate and final examinations has been vested in the General Legal Council.”
On Tuesday (9 November), the Minority chief whip, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, said in a memorandum addressed to the Speaker that the Attorney General has impugned the “image and integrity” of the House by refusing to carry out the orders.
Below is the full memorandum:
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