A private legal practitioner, Professor Stephen Asare, has expressed disappointed in the Attorney General and Minister of Justice’s response to Parliament concerning the House’s resolution to the Ghana Legal Council (GLC) to admit all 499 students who have attained the 50 per cent mark threshold but have been denied admission.
“The Attorney General and Minister of Justice and others who cannot find anything illegal with the 499 scam and monopoly of the Ghana Legal Council have all of a sudden discovered Parliament has no power to pass nonbinding resolution directing the Council to act ethically and follow the law,” he bemoaned.
According to Prof. Asare, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice had acknowledged he had power to direct GLC but had not told people why he had not used that power and quizzed why people wanted power but did not want to use it effectively and efficiently.
In response to Parliament’s directive, Godfred Dame, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, stated that Parliament does not have jurisdictive authority to direct GLC to admit the students however noted he was working in conjunction with the President to find solution to the issue.
But Prof. Asare decried back and forth between Parliament and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice was entirely wasteful and called on Mr Dame to use his powers granted by the 1992 Constitution to direct accredited law faculties to offer Professional Legal Course to anyone who had Bachelor of Law.
“That will be progress for allowing various University Law Faculties to offer professional law course to benefit legal education to test maintained hypothesis the School has comparative advantage over Faculties in teaching of Family Law, Procedure, Evidence and Alternative Dispute Resolution among others.
“It will also allow our Law Faculties to improve rankings in Africa by allowing to offer foundational courses hijacked by the school, competition will improve quality, innovation, potentially reduce cost, realise smaller classes and rational timetables, not forced 12 hours a day in poorly ventilated facilities,” Prof. Asare explained.
He questioned Mr Dame’s failure to find solution to issues surrounding professional legal education because he had constitutional authority to solve the challenge by giving direction to Council; however, he was refusing to use those powers. –myjoyonline.com
