The US-based Ghanaian Legal Practitioner Prof. Kwaku Asare has called on Members of Parliament (MPs) to annul the proposed Legislative Instrument (LI) that seeks new regulations for admissions and professional law courses in Ghana.
He feared that if the proposed LI is passed into law, it will kill former President Kwame Nkrumah’s vision of making professional legal education accessible to all qualified law graduates.
MPs are likely to deliberate on the proposed LI by the General Legal Council (GLC) tomorrow Friday.
But Prof. Asare in a statement said, ‘On behalf of the students who will be directly affected by your vote and on behalf of all concerned citizens, I respectfully make this final plea to you to annul the LI’.
He believes that an LLB degree without an opportunity to become a lawyer is a vain exercise that no country, certainly not a developing country like Ghana, can afford.
‘The proposed LI is at variance with the Legal Profession Act (the Parent Act) in that it seeks to shut the doors of the School of Law to LLB graduates while the Parent Act commands the GLC to provide opportunities for all LLB graduates to become Lawyers.
‘That the only reason for the proposed LI is because the General Legal Council (GLC) has failed to name alternative places of instruction for LLB degree holders as specified by the Parent Act. The ensuing lack of space, created by the GLC’s strategic inertia and failure to follow the Parent Act, is not a legitimate reason to allow an LI to pass that undermines the Parent Act,’ he stated.
Read portion of Prof.Asare’s statement:
Dear Honourable MPs: Tomorrow, Friday, March 2, 2018, you will be invited to deliberate on the Legal Profession (Professional and Post-Call Law Course) Regulations, 2018.
The question you will be deciding is whether to allow it to ripen into law or annul it. Your vote will be a red-letter one in that it will potentially determine the future of legal education and the nation’s commitment to justice and the rule of law.
On behalf of the students who will be directly affected by your vote and on behalf of all concerned citizens, I respectfully make this final plea to you to annul the LI on the following grounds:
1. The proposed LI is at variance with the Legal Profession Act (the Parent Act) in that it seeks to shut the doors of the School of Law to LLB graduates while the Parent Act commands the GLC to provide opportunities for all LLB graduates to become Lawyers.
2. It seeks to administer examinations to LLB graduates who are not enrolled at the School of Law while the Parent Act permits it to administer preliminary, intermediate and final exams to only students enrolled at the School of Law or alternative place of instructions.
3. The Parent Act conceptualizes legal education as a joint process that involves an entry point at the Universities and an exit point at the School of Law or alternative places of instructions. The Parent Act never conceptualized the LLB as a terminal degree.
4. That an LLB degree without an opportunity to become a lawyer is a vain exercise that no country, certainly not a developing country like Ghana, can afford.
5. That the proposed LI seeks to kill and will kill President Kwame Nkrumah’s vision to make professional legal education accessible to all qualified law graduates.
6. That the only reason for the proposed LI is because the General Legal Council (GLC) has failed to name alternative places of instruction for LLB degree holders as specified by the Parent Act. The ensuing lack of space, created by the GLC’s strategic inertia and failure to follow the Parent Act, is not a legitimate reason to allow an LI to pass that undermines the Parent Act.
7.That the entrance examination that the GLC seeks to impose is completely non-diagnostic. In 2017, only 20% of the candidates who passed this examination and the interview passed the exams administered at the School of Law.
8. That since 2012, the GLC has been engaged in a series of unlawful and unconstitutional practices that have deprived 3,000 qualified graduates of their intellectual property right to profession education.
9. That the proposed LI does not address the grave constitutional injury inflicted upon the 3,000 graduates.
10.That the Supreme Court has ruled that the law to govern the admission to the school of law or alternative places of instruction in 2018 must be in place by December 22, 2017.
11. That LI 1296 is the law in place on December 22, 2017 and that it is the LI that shall govern 2018 admissions to the school of law or alternative places of instruction.
12. That the proposed LI does not follow the due process mandated under Article 296 in that it was not preceded by notice, public hearings, consultations of alternatives. Even many legal academics at the various universities have not seen copies of the LI and are therefore unaware of its contents.
By: Ghana/Ultimatefmonline.com/106.9FM
The post Annul Proposed GLC Admissions LI – Prof. Asare tells Parliament appeared first on Ultimate FM.
The US-based Ghanaian Legal Practitioner Prof. Kwaku Asare has called on Members of Parliament (MPs) to annul the proposed Legislative Instrument (LI) that seeks new regulations for admissions and professional law courses in Ghana. He feared that if the proposed LI is passed into law, it will kill former President Kwame Nkrumah’s vision of making professional legal education accessible to all qualified law graduates. […]
The post Annul Proposed GLC Admissions LI – Prof. Asare tells Parliament appeared first on Ultimate FM.
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