We must base on our history and values to transform legal education – Justice Kulendi
The fight for reforms in Legal Education has caught the attention of Justice Yonny Kulendi of the Supreme Court of Ghana who is also a stakeholder in that regard and he has advised sponsors and drafters of the proposed legislation on legal education to bring out a framework that will tackle the contemporary challenges in the sector.
Speaking at the induction of fresh students into the Ghana School of Law, he explained that the existing legislation was put in place to suit that colonial thinking which obviously does not address such issues as experienced in these current times and admonished that legislation should assess the history of legal education and address the challenges.
A private members bill has also been pushed to address the situation with hints from Attorney General Godfred Dame of work on another draft bill in progress.
Justice Kulendi said, “the social data on which these pieces of legislation depended on for their enactment was drawn from the colonial thinking. The continuous relevance of such data might thus be questioned in our current context. Thus, today, we must understand our history, values and principles from this journey.”
“The supposed or contemplated bill on legal education will have to deal with the existing effects provided in the vestiges of the signs of legislation that provided the current law and more fundamentally in accordance with article 106 will have to map out reasonable remedies for redressing such effects properly identified,” he said.
Also at the event, the Ghana Bar Association urged the fresh students to imbibe in themselves the ethics governing the legal profession.
According to the association, this is the best way of making sure that they come out as consummate professionals who would be conscious of their duty to their clients.
Nana Serwaa Acheampong who is the treasurer of the association in a speech on behalf of the Bar President, Yaw Acheampong-Boafo said, “as future members of our revered profession, the president of the GBA would like you to begin to uphold the ethics of the legal profession by emulating some cardinal standards the legal profession namely professionalism, integrity, discipline, knowledge of the law, courtesy and etiquette”.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
