The Regulation, which will determine qualifications procedure into the Ghana School of Law as well as call to the Ghana Bar, has been  met with fierce resistance from the law students and the Coalition for the Reform of Legal Education.

[contextly_sidebar id=”fM4Gw6McUCFMADnm5O4mk3rcX4AlPpIA”]Both groups say the Regulation will constrict legal education in the country.

The Concerned Law Students say they are expecting a positive outcome from their meeting with Parliament’s joint Committee on Subsidiary Legislation and Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs held about a week ago.

Convener for the group, Ken Addor Donkor, however told Citi News that they will head to the Supreme Court if Parliament fails them.

“In fact, we are not anticipating any failure by the Committee, but when the unexpected happens, what we will do is that we will get any Member of Parliament to bring a motion against the L.I, and then we will be getting two thirds majority to vote the LI out of Parliament. If that fails, we will head to the Supreme Court for the interpretation of Section 13 of Act 32. “

The resistance

Some legal practitioners have also registered their displeasure about the Legal Profession Regulations 2017 .

The proposed LI among other things, states that the General Legal Council will conduct an entrance exam for the admission of students to the school, and conduct interviews for all applicants who pass the Ghana School of Law Entrance Examination.

The General Legal Council laid the Regulations in Parliament in mid-December 2017, in response to a Supreme Court order for a clear admission procedure into the Ghana School of Law, and call to the Ghana Bar.

Protest from students

The Concerned Law Students had earlier submitted a petition to Parliament against the new LI, describing it as a deliberate attempt by the GLC to frustrate them, something they considered a violation of their rights.

Ken Addor Donkor, the leader of the group, said the proposed LI was an attempt to kill the dreams of law students.
Exams, interviews barred for Law School

Supreme Court ruling

When the Supreme Court declared the interviews unconstitutional, it said the requirements are in violation of the Legislative Instrument 1296, which gives direction for the mode of admission.

The Justices in delivering their judgment, also indicated that their order should not take retrospective effect, but should be implemented in six months, when admissions for the 2018 academic year begin.

The plaintiff, Professor Kwaku Asare, a United States-based Ghanaian lawyer, went to court in 2015, challenging the legality of the modes of admission used by the Ghana School of Law.

According to him, the number of people who were admitted into the Ghana School of Law was woefully small considering the number of people who possessed LLB.

The Ghana Law School has been criticized for being overly rigid considering that it serves 12 schools providing LLB degrees.

The current training regime limits the intake into the Ghana Law School to under 500 of the about-2000 LLB graduates annually.

In his suit, Professor Kwaku Asare prayed for a declaration that GLC’s imposition of entrance examination and interview requirements for the Professional Law Course violates Articles ll (7) 297 (d) 23, 296 (a) (b) and 18 (2) of the 1992 Constitution.

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By: Sixtus Dong Ullo & Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Students threaten court action over law school admissions L.I appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

His comment comes on the back of a call by the Attorney General, Gloria Afua Akuffo, for the Legal Profession Regulations to be withdrawn from Parliament and re-laid due to a procedural error.

This, according to the Attorney General, is because some processes governing such regulations were not adhered to, adding that the regulation was not gazetted on time.

[contextly_sidebar id=”x4L6ez7KFAm8r3PS26cmUTlCHL6jIjWg”]“Your directive to the Ghana Publishing Company Limited to gazette the Regulation after the 22nd of December, 2017, does not meet the requirement of article 11(7) (b) of the 1992 Constitution. I kindly advise that the necessary arrangements are made to ensure that the Legal Profession (Professional and Post-Call Law Course) Regulation, 2017, are re-laid before Parliament in compliance with article 11 (7) of the 1992 constitution,” a letter from the Attorney General to the Parliamentary Committee on Subsidiary Legislation and sighted by citifmonline.com said.

Speaking to Citi News, Kofi Bentil, who is the legal adviser to a group calling itself the Association of Law students who had called on Parliament to annul the regulation, welcomed the Attorney General’s call for the withdrawal of the LI, but urged that before it is re-laid, it should be amended to make legal education in the country more accessible.

“I wish the withdrawal was on substance. Be that as it may, there is a withdrawal. The AG said they should re-lay, what it suggests is that, they might want to go and correct the errors and try and bring it back. If they are going to bring it back, such a controversial L.I. and we are going to have to fight it all over again to have it removed, I think we all go through needless stress when the future is clear that we cannot limit professional law education to only logistical problems of the Ghana School of Law.”

“Best practice everywhere is that, they must expand and allow people who are qualified to take the professional law course. So we hope they do not re-lay it. We actually believe that in the process, there will be some discussions in the back, and I believe reasoning will prevail and that will prevent the relaying of this same L.I. But if it turns out that we cannot agree, the the right place to go is the court,” he added.

Withdraw it now – Muntaka

Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, had on last Thursday, also prayed Parliament to withdraw the Legal Profession Regulations currently before Parliament.

According to him, the legislation, which has been in Parliament for over a month now, has not even been seen by some of the Members of Parliament as they have not received any copies.

Muntaka also alleged that, information available to him suggests the regulation had not been gazetted.

Annul regulation now

Prior to that, a group calling itself, the Association of Law students had called on Parliament to annul the regulation.

The Association of Law Students on January 29, 2018, petitioned President Nana Akufo-Addo to cause the withdrawal of the controversial Legal Profession Regulations 2017 from Parliament.

The Association wants the President to impress on Members of Parliament to vote against the regulation.

The General Legal Council laid the Regulations in Parliament on December 22, 2017, in response to a Supreme Court order for a clear admission procedure into the Ghana School of Law, and call to the Ghana Bar.

The proposed L.I. in question, among other things, states that the General Legal Council will conduct an entrance exam for the admission of students to the school, and conduct interviews for all applicants who pass the Ghana School of Law Entrance Examination.

The LI is expected to become Law this month, February, 2018.

But the law students maintain that if the document is passed in its current form, it will restrict access to legal education.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey & Bobbie Osei/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Amend Law school admission L.I. before relaying it – Kofi Bentil appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.