According to him, the stringent admission procedures will help the school do away with students who have not had adequate training from their respective law faculties in tertiary institutions.

[contextly_sidebar id=”GMty3XYApndLKG2z25MhN1FPuDbaX0LV”]“As legal educators, our mandate is to give access and also ensure quality, so we are not going to allow anybody to just come and say he is going to do law when we are not sure you have had enough training at the LLB level… There are some products from the faculties who do not meet the standard required to do law,” Nana Osei Bonsu said in a Citi News interview.

Some law students and legal practitioners are resisting the passage of the Legal Profession Regulations 2017 currently before Parliament which seeks to scrutinize entry to the law school.

The concerned groups argue that, the LI, if implemented, will prevent otherwise qualified graduates from pursuing the law program.

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

A group calling itself 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

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/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Rigorous admission process to ensure quality – Law School Registrar appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

This comes after the General Legal Council declared that it would hold the exams for the prospective students despite a petition by the group to scrap it.

[contextly_sidebar id=”z0DuwA0PSSv58fIWRhjhuWAjIuhd6HYK”]The group petitioned the General Legal Council to facilitate automatic admissions into the Law School by scraping this year’s entrance exams slated for July 14, 2017, saying that it will amount to an illegality by the Council after the Supreme Court judgment on the matter.

The group said it has decided to pursue the matter in court to seek clarity and also get the Council to cancel the examination.

Its leader, Godfred Tessu, who spoke to Citi News, said, “We had a meeting and we agreed that, this coming week, we will go to court and defend our right. We are going to ask the court to place an injunction on the exam and we hope that the court will grant it.”

He described as disappointing the Council’s decision not to honour their petition, but said the group is resolute in ensuring that the “illegality” is not perpetuated.

Godfred Tessu also urged calm among prospecting Ghana School of Law students.

Supreme Court order

The Supreme Court on June 22, 2017 declared as unconstitutional the entrance exams and interview session before admitting new students into the Ghana Law School.

According to the court, in a case brought before it by Professor Kwaku Asare, a United States-based Ghanaian lawyer, in 2015, the requirements were 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 begins.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Law students go to court to stop upcoming entrance exams appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.