Legal education reform: My take
Article 41(e) of the 1992 Constitution enjoins every citizen to work conscientiously in his/her lawful chosen occupation.
According to Black’s Law Dictionary, an occupation is an activity or pursuit in which a person is engaged; especially a person’s usual or principal work or business.
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The legitimate expectation of every individual pursuing a degree in law is to have the opportunity to pursue the professional law course leading to his name being entered in the roll of lawyers.
However, such aspiration of holders of degree in law has been challenging ever than before due to the current legal educational structure. At the last entrance examination conducted by the Independent Examination Committee (IEC) on July 26, 2019, 128 out of 1820 candidates who wrote the examination qualified to pursue the professional law course administered by the Ghana School of Law.
Demonstration
Following the release of the entrance examination results, the National Association of Law Students staged a demonstration in Accra to protest the mass failures and advocated reforms to address the systemic failure within the country’s legal education system.
The Association submitted a petition to the President and copied the Speaker of Parliament.
The Report of the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs on the written petition by the National Association of Law students seeking reforms in the country’s legal system is out.
Paragraph 7.3 of the report on the recommendation for comprehensive review of Ghana’s Legal Education System provides that the Legal Profession (Amendment) Bill, 2018 before Parliament has been overtaken by events and should be withdrawn and replaced by a new one that will take account of all the challenges confronting our legal education system.
Furthermore, in order to carry out massive legislative and structural reforms in the legal educational system, the Committee recommends to the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice to submit a new Bill to the House to replace the Legal Profession (Amendment) Bill, 2018.
Legislation
The present legislation on legal education can support to a large extent the reforms proposed by the National Association of Law Students and other well-meaning Ghanaians, that, the existing law faculties be accredited by the General Legal Council to run the professional law course programme.
Subsection 2 of Section 13 of the Legal Profession Act, 1960(Act 32) states that “The Council may carry out the arrangements…, either through a school of law set up by them or through any other educational institution.”
The proposal for the new Bill should not be used as another avenue to delay and deny our constitutional legitimate expectation.
The recommendations of the Committee, among others, include the General Legal Council to commence the process for re-marking of scripts upon request and payment of reasonable fees.
The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice to submit a new Bill to the House to replace the Legal Profession (Amendment) Bill, 2018 to achieve the massive legislative and structural reforms towards finding lasting solution to the challenges in the system.
Suggestions
I conclude with some suggestions to the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs on the report of the written petition by the National Association of Law students seeking reforms in the country’s legal system.
I am of the opinion that the recommendation directed to the General Legal Council to commence the process for re-marking of scripts upon request and payment of reasonable fee should have been directed to the Minister to whom functions under Act 32 are assigned by the President, probably the principal legal advisor to the government.
The minister would then direct the General Legal Council based on the recommendations of the Committee. The directions of the Minister to whom functions
under Act 32 are assigned by the President would be binding on the General Legal Council rather than the recommendations of the Committee.
Such considered view is grounded on Subsection 5 of Section 1 of Act 32, which states that “the Council shall in the performance of their functions comply with any general directions given to them by the Minister.”
Again, the recommendation of the submission of a new Bill for the legal education reform by the Attorney- General and Minister for Justice was without timelines.
Being mindful that no Parliament can bind its successor, I pray that this new Bill be submitted and passed into law before the Seventh Parliament of the Fourth Republic is dissolved.
The writer is a Chartered Accountant
Writer’s E-mail: [email protected].