Day 13 - Supreme Court and General Legal Council

On Thursday morning I went to the Supreme Court with Nene Amegatcher, a senior lawyer from Sam Okudzeto and Associates.  

Mr Amegatcher’s case was the last to be heard, so I got to listen to several other matters first.  Today was “constitutional law” day, when the cases which had had to be adjourned last Tuesday due to the absence of a particular justice were heard.  A special panel of seven – and at one point nine – justices was sitting, owing to the importance of the issues.  There is actually little substantive oral argument heard in the Supreme Court: most of the advocacy is through written submissions.  This does not mean, however, that there are not some interesting – and at times entertaining – exchanges.  One of these occurred in a case between the Centre for Public Interest Law and the Attorney-General, and went (roughly) as follows:

Counsel for Attorney-General: My Lords, does the judiciary have the power to question acts of the executive which are done within the law?  That is the issue.

Justice: Are you saying the judiciary has no power of judicial review?

Counsel for AG: No – but when the executive is acting within its powers?

Justice: But that is the question!

I also heard the court giving judgment.  The judgment was read out by one justice, and then the chair of the panel commented on it, giving further explanation and reasons.  The point of law involved was whether or not a mistake in a writ invalidated proceedings: in the circumstances of the case, it was held not to do so.

After the Supreme Court had finished sitting, I went to the Commercial Court where I witnessed an episode illustrating the importance of deference at the Ghanaian bar.  The general principle is that the order in which cases are heard is dictated by the seniority of the barrister.  I had already had some bitter experience of this rule when accompanying a pupil barrister from the Legal Aid Board: despite arriving almost first, we were the last to be called to see the judge.  Today I was with a very senior barrister, Nene Amegatcher, and saw the other side of the coin.  The judge firstly asked Mr Amegatcher’s consent to another case being heard before his, and afterwards ordered the lawyers in that case to remain until Mr Amegatcher’s case was finished “to show deference”.  The lawyers looked rather blank at this, and it was not enforced – but it is clearly an important convention.

In the afternoon I met with Andrew Amegatcher, secretary of the General Legal Council. We had a wide-ranging discussion and he seemed keen to further links between the UK and Ghanaian bars.  Our meeting was at his office at the Ghana School of Law, situated beside the High and Supreme Courts complex.

The Ghana School of Law from the front...

...and back.

In the evening, I went out for a meal with an American intern I’d met at the Supreme Court and some friends of hers (and friends of friends).  It was good to experience some nightlife in Osu - Accra’s trendiest district, according to the authority that is my guidebook.  It was interesting too to learn about other interns’ experiences in Ghana - there was a certain amount of showing off about the strangest foodstuff to have been eaten.  I think the winner was Catrina from America, with wele (the skin of a cow).

The meal in Osu.