Accra. Dec. 1, - Parliament has
been petitioned over the new Legislative Instrument (LI) by the General Legal
Council (GLC), which is proposing new regulations for admissions and
professional law courses in the country.
A group calling itself Concerned
LLB Holders, Ghana says the new LI by the Council did not only seek to
frustrate their attempts to gain admissions but a breach on their fundamental
human rights and also aimed at frustrating lawyer hopefuls in the country.
The petition signed by LLB
students from various universities is making a case for automatic admissions to
the Ghana School of Law by LLB holders.
The group led by Mr Ken Addor
Donkor, admitted that the GLC has been mandated by the Legal Profession Act
1960, Act 32 to organise legal education in the country, pursuant to this
responsibility, the council approve both public and private institutions to the
bachelors of laws programme at the faculty level.
The group said until 2012, the
qualification to enrol into the Ghana School of Law has been regulated by
Sections 2 and 3 of the professional Law course regulations.
However, the group said since
2012 the introduction of extra qualification criteria that included interview
which was alien to LI 1296.
The LI in question, among other
things, states that the GLC will conduct an entrance exam for the admission of
students to the school, and conduct interviews for all applicants who pass the
Ghana School of Law Entrance Examination.
The LI under consideration also
proposed that a person may be disqualified for admissions based on the
compatibility of their profession to the course.
Also, a person disqualified from
the admissions process on three separate occasions can never qualify for the
law school
Meanwhile the apex court of the
land that is the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the requirement by the
GLC asking applicants to the Ghana Law School to undertake an examination and
subsequent interview before admission.
The court also indicated that the
order should not take retrospective effect, but should be implemented in six
months, when admissions for the 2018 academic year begin.
This was after, Professor Kwaku
Asare, a United States-based Ghanaian lawyer and plaintiff proceeded to court
in 2015, challenging the legality of the modes of admission used by the Ghana
School of Law.
According to him, the number of
people who were admitted into the Ghana School of Law was woefully small
considering the number of people who possessed LLB.
The Ghana Law School is currently
serving 12 schools providing LLB degrees.
GNA
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