Supreme Court nominee Emmanuel Yonni Kulendi is proposing complete structural reforms of Ghana’s legal education to bring it abreast of current trends.
He noted that the legal system, which was designed 60 years ago and has never been substantially re-engineered over the period, is bound to have problems.
The population, he said, has increased while democracy and rule of law has become the preferred system of governance over the years pushing legislators to pursue law in order to be more functional in their duties.
According to him, the demand for a working knowledge of law by members of the executive has also mounted more pressure on the study of law thereby choking the system.
He argued that the appetite for studying law has become inevitable with the growing population, coupled with the accreditation of various universities to run law faculties.
Mr. Yonni Kulendi who appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Tuesday 12th May, 2020, to be vetted on his nomination was asked about the current stalemate at the Ghana School of Law and the way forward.
He pointed out that 26 years ago, University of Ghana was the only place to go and study law adding, “You could not study law in KNUST or the University of Cape Coast.”
“So you entered the class of 120 students, went through baptism of fire. The first 40 there is a red line of merit that you would do LLB, the next 22 you do BA and the rest exit the faculty. And from there you do a straight transition to the Ghana School of Law at Makola.”
He argued that the case today is quite different with most of the universities having faculties of law and teaching law and yet the same law school at Makola continues to be the only existing facility.
“You don’t need to be a prophet to know there will be a stampede at the door, and wherever there is a stampede there will be casualties.”
“We are having academic casualties in that journey and it is creating a crisis so do we need reforms, yes we do,” he added.
Mr. Kulendi noted that any reforms of the system must take into account the population increase and the growing appetite for the law.
These, he said, must be done in sync with what is happening in other universities.
He called for comprehensive study of the problem and composition of a working group to make recommendation on the type of reforms that should be done in order to align demand with the supply.
