Law school judgement could make certificates null and void - Lawyer

Europa

June 23, 2017 2:06 PM

Moses Foh Amoaning said that the certificates already awarded students upon their completion of study could be deemed as void.

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Moses Foh Amoaning, a Law lecturer at the Ghana Law School has indicated that the Supreme Court’s decision barring the General Legal Council (GLC) from asking applicants to the Ghana Law School to undertake examination and interviews before admission, could affect the certificates of students.

According to him, per the interpretation of the judgement, the certificates already awarded students upon their completion of study could be deemed as void.

“Those students who have gone through the course now, and those in final year who have just taken their exams, honestly, the certificates that they are going to be awarded will also be null and void because if you compare the subjects that they have to do which is set up in the LI, it is different from what they did,” he told Accra-based Citi FM.

He, however, believed that the judgement afforded the GLC the opportunity to align its reforms with the law.

“…It [the judgment] is just concerning all that we have been saying that the General Legal Council, in conducting reforms, which includes the expansion of the school, examination interviews because the standards coming from the faculties was not that good, it confirms our view that those reforms were not in sync with the current legislative framework that governs professional legal education.”

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that it was unconstitutional for the General Legal Council to ask applicants of the Ghana Law School to undertake entrance examination and also be interviewed before granted admission.

According to the court the current mode of admission violates Legislative Instrument 1296.

A United States-based Ghanaian lawyer, Professor Kwaku Asare, filed the suit in 2015, to challenge the mode of admission used by the Ghana School of Law.

Professor Asare argued that the compulsory entrance examination and interview before admission violates Articles ll (7) 297 (d) 23, 296 (a) (b) and 18 (2) of the 1992 Constitution.

The justices, in delivering their judgment, noted that their order on cancelling the entrance examination and subsequent interview should be implemented in six months when admissions for the 2018 academic year begin.

The Ghana Law School has been criticised for its tedious and rigid mode of admission to students with LLB degrees across the country.

Since it is the only school that trains LLB graduates before they are called to the bar, the school enjoys monopoly and as such has limited openings for thousands of LLB holders.

Europa