Legal education reforms must be comprehensive — Panellists
Panellists at a forum have said that legal education reforms being spearheaded by the Office of the Attorney-General and the Ministry of Justice must be holistic.
They said the reforms must include teacher remuneration, teaching methodology and curriculum, and student experience, among others, to help build competent and ethical legal professionals capable of handling complex issues.
The panellists included the acting Director of Legal Education, Professor Raymond Atuguba; Dean of the University of Ghana School of Law, Prof. Peter A. Atupare; the Deputy Dean of the UPSA Law School, Dr Francisca Kusi-Appiah, and Benjamin Alpha Aidoo.
They were speaking at a forum organised by Solidare Governance Forum, a think tank and advocacy group, with the goal of shaping Ghana's policy landscape using the principles and values of social democracy.
It was on the theme: “Building competent, ethical and inclusive Ghanaian legal professionals”.
Situation
Prof. Atuguba said that as law lecturers, they were not satisfied with the country’s current legal education framework.
As a result, he, together with other Deans and past Directors of the Ghana School of Law, came together to develop a guideline that encompassed academic quality assurance, recognition of law faculties, development of law manuals, and conditions of service of teachers, which was presented to the General Legal Council last year, yet, nothing has been done about the report.
“It’s been 12 and a half months, and we don’t have an implementation plan.
“All we need now is human and financial resources to do the job. All the issues have been resolved in what we present, so what are we waiting for? Why are we holding another forum?” he asked.
He explained that the training of lawyers remained a function of national development; as such, it was time for the nation to ask critical questions about the type of lawyers it needed for the 21st century and what was required to produce them.
Ensuring quality
For his part, Prof. Atupare said the reforms should not focus on opening up the space but increasing the quality of legal professionals, adding “the quality of law can only be dealt with at the training level”.
To ensure that all students were exposed to the various concepts and elements of legal principles, he said it was important to harmonise the curricula for all the courses.
The Law of Contract being taught at the University of Ghana should have the same contents as that being taught at UPSA, and not at the convenience of the lecturer.
“If it is left to the convenience of the lecturer, then that will become problematic, leading to insufficient exposure to the content of the course.
The reforms should, therefore, be comprehensive and not just an aspect,” he said.
Focus
Dr Kusi-Appiah also said that the reforms must focus on grey areas of the law, such as cybersecurity, data protection, and Artificial Intelligence, among others, adding that the reforms must not be politicised but prioritised.
She said to ensure quality, it was also important for law faculties to take advantage of exchange programmes with properly regimented documentation of how assessments were done, while shifting away from theory-based learning to practice.
“For me, the reform should focus a lot on practice and ethics,” Dr Kusi-Appiah added.
For his part, Mr Aidoo stressed the need to move beyond a system that primarily produces lawyers focused on litigation rather than problem-solving and critical thinking.
He said that the current legal professions framework, which had been in place for over six decades, had not kept pace with advancements and the increased demand for legal education.
